The Forgotten Man Hunter of the Eastern front
by Spearmann66
Summary: Josef Allerberger, who was one of the deadliest German snipers to have served on the Eastern Front, now fighting teeth for teeth against the Soviets in Berlin 1945 in the last days of WW2. In a moment of heroic act, he died trying to save his men. Soon he awakens in a new world, and was being called a "Drifter" by people. A whole new war is about begin.
1. Ch1: Berlin in Flames

**The Man Hunter of the Eastern front**

Author's Note

This story is centred on an actual person named Josef "Sepp" Allerberger (1924-2010). He was an Austrian sniper of the Wehrmacht's 144 Regiment, 3rd mountain division on the Eastern Front, who has been credited with 257 kills with the longest confirmed kill reported over 1,100 meters (1,200 yards). Josef Allerberger escaped captivity by the Soviets at the end of the war and went back home to Wals-Siezenhelm, Salzburg, Austria where he became a carpenter after the war.

In this fan-fiction, I may twist some of the major historic events in which Josef was killed in action at the Battle of Berlin (1945) and never made it back home to Austria. Instead he was brought to the other world to join the Drifters against the Ends shortly after he thought he died. I hope you enjoy reading the story.

*Disclaimer*

I do not own any character or material of the original series. The scenes and characters depicted in the story are from real life events that happened. Some of the scenes are changed or exaggerated to dramatize the events.

Legend

"sample text" – normal conversation

'sample text' – thoughts of a character

*sample text* - sound effect

 **Chapter 1: Berlin in flames**

The sound of plane engines roaring in the skies above a ruined city can be heard as flames and smoke engulf buildings and streets. The constant sounds of Katyusha[1] rockets and artillery can be heard from afar, followed by dreadful loud explosions as battle rages on in streets and alleys, buildings to buildings. *WHEEE**WHEEE**WHEEE**BOOM**BOOM**VRRRRRMM**VOOOMMM**BOOOM*

*BRRRTTT*BRRRRRRRT**POW**POW**BURPPPP**BURRRPPP*

Berlin, Germany 30th April 1945

The USSR has reached the inner city of Berlin as their mighty army closes in on the Reichstag[2] by every minute, every inch of the last German lines of defence. The Wehrmacht is now in complete disarray, with its dwindling number of soldiers and shortage of food and ammo. The government of Nazi Germany is desperate to survive the onslaught of the tremendously powerful Red Army as Hitler grew ever more frustrated and angered by the incompetence of his generals. The last remaining German soldiers from all ages of youngsters to elderly men braced for the last battle they may face for the rest of their lives as the Soviets prepares for the final assault of the last streets that separates the Chancellery Building.

In one particular ruined apartment building, a man in German uniform could be seen sitting in a crouched position from a window of the top floor with a telescoped Kar98[1] aimed at an end of the street below him, where Soviets' advance could be heard.

There are several stielhandgrantes[1] laid on the sill of the window and a few tripwire AP mines could barely be seen set up at the door of the apartment below him.

The German solider seems to a seasoned fighter as he has a few scars and old burn marks on his hands, wearing a patched up uniform and draped piece of cloth over his shoulders exclusive from the standards of the Wehrmacht and carrying a few other firearms around his uniform webbing, including a Browning Hi-power[1] pistol, a PPSh-41[1] sub-machinegun and also a few captured enemy F1[1] grenades over his shoulder straps.

The man has several badges and a few medals in his pocket, one clearly made out from his shirt pocket is the Knight's Cross[1], one of the highest awards to the servicemen of Nazi Germany for combat bravery.

He looked at the medal sticking out of his pocket for a moment and said, "The Knight's cross, huh? It only seems so reasonable since we are the last remaining of the best in this country no wonder we were awarded such a great medal.

Then added, "Still, if I were to be captured, I would have to get rid of my badges or I'll be a one sorry skewered weasel when Soviets finds out I'm the guy who killed hundreds of their men." as he chuckled abit to himself.

"I believe it's an honour from the Fuhrer for extreme bravery in battle. The fact that you earned it is still the truth, sir." a young man in his teens wearing a German Volkssturm[1] uniform said as he sat near the other man.

"Hmph, more like a like parting gift from a coward who sits in his nice comfy bunker while shouting thorough the radio that there are "traitors" among us. This medal will stand for nothing after this war. It will become a myth and a curse upon those who dare show off."

Suddenly they heard the voices of Soviets and tanks rolling down the street opposite of them. The two men looked out the window.

The man is Josef Allerberger[4], still alive after the brutal Eastern Front campaign. Even though it's nearing the end of the war with the obvious losing side, it doesn't seem be that he's about to get weary of the war.

He peers through his sniper scope. "One tank, two MGs and 15 men armed with rifles and a few PPShs." Josef says as he motioned his hand to the young boy to come over. "Ernest, can you hand me your binoculars? I need to have a closer look."

The boy Ernest quickly hands over his binoculars to Josef as he gets his Mp 40[1] submachine gun ready. Josef tells Ernest quietly, "Remember, don't shoot until they pass our block. Remember, Pull the trigger, not squeeze it." The boy replied, "Verstanden.[3]"

Josef looks out through his binoculars, attempting to identify the officer in the group. He spots a man signalling other soldiers with his hand and his uniform badge could be clearly seen as the commandant of the platoon.

'Found you.' Josef said. He position his hand on the rifle holding the trigger steady, while slowing down his breath to every 5 secs. 'If I take out the tank. They would have no support while Ernest would throw grenades at the soldiers and I'll shoot the officer next.'

Josef whispers to Ernest, "Ernest, I need you to get yourself to the room next to ours and take out your grenades. Once I shot the tank, you will throw grenades at the soldiers." Ernest nodded, before crouching quietly to the other room.

Josef aims steadily, each time putting the sights on the rear of the Soviet tank's fuel compartment. He carefully pulls down his cloak over head to ensure that the enemy would not make out his outline or his position. He times the moments when bombs drop on the city. As the soldiers pass by the apartment, the tank rolls pass revealing it's exposed fuel tanks.

In a block not too far off, a bomb falls and explodes, and at that moment Josef slows down his breath drastically and takes aim of the fuel tank's screw cap, he shoots the fuel compartment and the bullet pierces through screw cap of the fuel tank.

*PHOOOM!WOOOOOOM!BOOOM!*

Soon, the tank was on fire and the tank crewmen started came crawling out of the tanks engulfed in flames. The Soviet commandant was taken by surprise, almost startled. "What was that!? A mine!?" having not heard the gunshot first.

Suddenly several grenades were dropped right in front of the Soviet soldiers and they screamed, "Grenade!" A moment later there was a series of loud explosion, killing many of the soldiers, knocking over the maxim machine guns and the commandant.

"There he is! On the top floor! Get him!" the soldiers shouted.

The commandant regained his foot, then attempted to use a flare round to signal other nearby troops while the remaining men retuned fire at the apartment building and then tried breaching the building.

'I won't let you do that, Bolshevik!'

The commandant was shot in the head blowing up a chunk of his upper skull, ultimately unable to call for more reinforcements. When the soldiers opened the entrance door to the building, a set of AP mines rigged to the door went off, killing several of the men. *BOOOM! Ahhhhh!*

The men were riddled with shrapnel and their lower half of the torsos blown up. Now with only 5 men, they went up to the floor where the grenade came from.

Ernest cocked his Mp 40 and waited for the Russians from the room. When the Russians go up to the floor Ernest opened fire aiming at the centre of mass. *BUUUUUUURRRP!*

The boy managed to take down 1 of the soldiers before he had to take cover from the return fire. At that moment a grenade came bouncing into the room and he pulled over a nearby table facing the grenade and ducked behind it.

*BOOOM!*

The grenade went off and the room was covered with shrapnel but, the boy was unharmed. However the explosion caused immense pain to his inner ear and so he was in a concussion unable to comprehend what is going on around him aside from the muffled voices.

Then the soldiers breached the room, aiming their guns at the overturned table. The boy then thought that this is it for him to kick his bucket just before Josef came up from behind the 4 soldiers and shoots them with his PPSh-41.

*BRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTT**AHHH!*

All four soldiers fell to the floor, and Ernest stood up slowly from the table cover. "Are you okay, kid?" Josef asked.

The boy then clasped his ear shut and swallowed his spit.

'Ouch!' the pain was really great. Then slowly the boy began to hear what Josef was saying,

"What sir? I didn't hear you!" asked Ernest with a puzzled look.

Josef grinned, "I meant to say, that you did a good job Ernest. You are now a man! Ha!" Ernest too grinned.

Suddenly, the two heard more soldiers coming their way with the sound of multiple tanks heading their way. "Scheisse! I guess they heard us. We can't fight that many armour. Time to get out of here Ernest!" Josef said in a sharp yet discreet manner.

"I have 2 smoke grenades, you hold one! It might come in handy for our escape!" as he tosses a stielhandgranate with a white ribbon painted on the head.

"Sir, the tanks are already closing in, there no enough time to get out from the front! I think we should use the back alleyway!" Ernest shouted.

Josef then thought for a moment and said, "There should be a dumpster on our way in this house. We have no time to run down stairs since the Soviets across the street would hear us trashing about. We will have to jump from a mid-floor onto the dumpster through one of the windows!"

"Yes, sir!" Ernest said just as the sound of a tank turret turning could be heard from the street,

Without thinking much Josef yelled, "Ihn Deckung!"[3] And they dropped to the floor.

*BOOOM!*

Suddenly a tank shell came straight through the wall adjacent to them and the half of the room collapsed.

Josef and Ernest got back up and they ran over to the hallway of the floor and down the stairs to a middle floor, dashed over to a room with window facing the back alley right above the dumpster.

They smashed the large widow in a living room with their guns and jumped out of the window, landing on the dumpster, making a rather loud thud. Ernest got up and felt a sharp pain down his left leg.

"Ahhh! My leg!" Ernest let out a small voice and the Russian soldiers heard it.

"They are behind the building, surround them!" as loud footsteps can be heard approaching.

Josef then got out of the dumpster and told Ernest to give him his hands. Ernest held over his shoulders and was pulled out of the trash.

Josef throws a smoke grenade to the right side of the alley where most of the footsteps and shouting was heard.

Josef looked at Ernest and asked, "Are you alright? Can you walk?"

Ernest replied, "Yes I can, it just a broken leg." As he tries to stand up, he lets out a groan. "Ugh!"

"Don't push yourself too hard." As Josef starts running to the other side of the alley with a wounded comrade over his shoulders. Then, a few soldiers appeared over the other side of the alley.

"There they are! Kill them!"

In an instinctive reaction, Josef took out his Browning pistol and shot all 3 soldiers dead with excellent accuracy.

"Sir, behind you!" said Ernest as he aimed his MP 40 at the soldier behind him and shot him down.

Josef then reached the end of the alley and escaped their pursuers. "We need to regroup with the garrison!" Ernest said.

Josef replied, "No! The Russian would have probably surrounded the nearby streets by now. The men at the garrison would have probably retreated by now. We need to fall back too!"

The two men then started pacing quickly across the street and 200 meters beyond that is the last barricade held by whatever remains of the German armed forces. *CRASH! BANG!*

A wall of a building 40 feet away from them came falling down as a Soviet tank emerges from the rubble. "Panzer! Run Run! Quickly!" as Josef shouted.

They were only a few meters away from the street as they ran toward it. The tank then fired a shell at them, merely missing by a few inches as the wall of a building opposite the street they ran to collapsed.

"Mein gott[3], that was a close one!" Ernest said.

Josef looks at the barricade across the street and said, "We are not out of the mess yet, kid. Do you have a flag? So we can wave at the men in the garrison over there. Quickly before that tank catches up with us!" pointing at the heavily fortified barricade with barbwires and tank traps and a few AT guns and panzers, including the last remaining Tigers used as mobile tank guns.

Josef then said, "We are heading there now. We have to make it there before the Soviets runs over the perimeter!"

Ernest replied, "I think I have the flag sir." As he took out a small folded piece of fabric painted with a familiar rotated swastika within a white circle and a red color representing Nazi Germany.

"Good, now I'll tie it onto my rifle and we will take cover behind buildings and run over to the end of this road to the garrison, verstanden?" "Verstanden!" Ernest replied.

Soon, they are running waving the Nazi flag on the rifle muzzle as they hurried over to the barricade.

The men at the barricade notices the men, "Isn't that the men told to fall back to here to the last barricade? Why is there only 2 of them?" the men said.

Suddenly, the tank that was chasing them came up right behind them as the main gun on the turret can be heard whizzing. "Take cover!" Josef said as the tank fires its round.

They both took cover but the round landed very close to them and they were sent flying to a wall on the side of the street. The soldiers at the garrison noticed the tank and requested permission to fire Pazerschrecks at it from the garrison commander.

The Hauptmann[1] at the garrison told them, "We cannot afford to waste our precious ammunition over mere 2 soldiers who were probably from the garrison that was breached ahead of ours. I heard no one from there made it back here alive."

The captain watches the 2 men are now laying on the ground disoriented by the explosion. Josef came to his senses back first and see Ernest still lying down unable to come to his feet.

"Ahhhh! My ears!" the poor boy screamed "I can't hear anything!"

Josef pulled the boy back up and said, "On your feet Soldier! We are almost there!"

A Sergeant at the garrison shouted at the captain, "Sir, those are our men no matter how much they seem to be goners. We must help them!"

The Captain feeling the loss of his countrymen over a pointless defence that was impossible from the very beginning when the Soviets Broke through the German defence line along the Oder and Neisse River.

Then, the Captain with resolve to save the men ordered them to use the Panzerfausts since there's still adequate number of them for the next assault.

Then a squad three of men from the garrison runs up to a corner of the street and tries to fire their weapon. The Soviet tank sprayed machine gun fire at the men knowing that they have AT weapons.

Josef not wanting anyone else to die because of them, took his rifle and aimed at the tank midst the machinegun firing at the AT squad's direction.

He took one last breath before adrenaline surged through his body, now everything has slowed down he could see the driver of the tank peering through a slit as it moved.

'Aim steady, keep the focus pinned, keep it small. I have to take out the driver at the right moment.' In an attempt to cause the tank to run into a building.

He took his shot and the bullet went right through the tank driver's head instantly killing him and through the gunner's leg. The tank then went out of control and ran into a nearby building.

However, just as Josef shot the driver of the tank, he was caught up in the tank's coaxial machine gun fire aimed at the AT crew and was shot in the chest multiple times. He fell down but still conscious.

Ernest now out of the daze from the explosion see his comrade dying.

"Corporal!" Ernest shouted. Josef shows a grin on his face saying, "That was abit reckless of me. So this is how I end huh? Not much surprise…."

*Bleghhhh!Cough!Cough*

Blood starts spurting uncontrollably out of his mouth. The AT squad took advantage and went around the rear of the tank and shot their panzerfausts. The tank blew up and it was destroyed for good.

Ernst still determined to save his dying comrade, moved him out of the street and dragged him all the way to the barricade, attempting to perform a first aid on him as he took out his bandages.

Josef said in a very scruffled voice, "H-Hey.. kid-d, i-its no u-use do-n't. I've s-seen men, they d-don't get ba-ck fr-om this kind of letha-al woundd." As blood continues to bleed out.

Ernest in a fit of anger said, "SHUT UP! You have to live! Don't die yet, we still need you! Who will be there for us if you aren't here to fight with us together now!?"

Just as Ernest said that, Josef placed his hand on Ernest' head "Y-You will-l fight. You are a soldier of Germany have some p-pride in yourself. You are no longer a boy, you are a man now." Josef said as he chuckled.

"Protect t-the p-people, do not let them fall into the Soviet h-hands. They would commit the same crime on our people as we did to theirs. I-If all else fails, run over to the Western allies side and surrender. Deutschland will still remain your beloved fatherland in their hands."

Ernst now feeling immense sorrow of losing a great comrade, he cries as he is unable to stop the bleeding of his tattered body that has sustained serious injuries in his vital organs.

"I will never forget you. I will live and tell the people your story after this war is over. May I keep your diary, sir." Ernst said.

Josef smiled, "I-It's in m-my lower pocket to my right l-leg-g. Y-You can keep that a-and my medals too. Keep them s-safe."

Ernst mustered up with courage said, "I will promise to keep them safe until the war is over. I will tell the world that you were here with us corporal, sir!"

Josef chuckled in a rather croaking manner, "Good man, uhh….."

From a fading vision Josef see shouting soldiers from the barricade and hears roars of Soviet hordes heading their way as Ernst puts away his diary and the soldiers hurried back to their garrison.

At this point, Josef doesn't care anymore, he's a soul free of danger and combat. 'So this is what death feels like. So cold….like those mountains back at home. It's so cold…'

Door Corridors, Somewhere in another dimension, 2XXX

Josef opens his eyes and sees a bright corridor aligned with hundreds of doors. Soon, realize he is in another dimension now.

"Where am I? Is this heaven? I thought I should have gone to hell."

Then he sees a Caucasian man with glasses sitting at a table reading newspaper smoking cigarettes with an ashtray by the side of the table full of cigarette butts. The man looks at Josef with an expressionless face.

Josef not wanting to feel awkward since it's not his way of dealing with people speaks to the man, "Hello, Mr. Satan or angel Michael whichever you are. I'm here to receive my judgement for afterlife. It's not as if I wanted to smile but there's always a saying in the army that in the face of death you laugh your way to hell in the face of the devil once you die. That way it's merrier. And boy do you love to smoke." Josef lets out a small laugh.

The man sitting at the table puts up a small smile himself before he proceeds to take out a piece of paper which Josef recalls being similar to a military unit assignment paper as the man writes on it.

"What is that paper for?" asked Josef just as a corrugated stone door beside him opened.

"Woah!" exclaimed Josef as he was sucked into what seems to be a dark void.

The Other World, Orte's Southern Territory

The door opened up on the other side in another world and Josef Allerberger came out through the door almost tumbling down, but regained his balance before hitting the ground face first.

As he regained his stance, he almost felt shocked since it's not a flat ground he's on.

Josef landed on a hilltop area of the region where elves lived for thousands of years. "Schisse, I would have dropped down and well….I guess I might not die since this is heaven? No?" as he almost dropped over the hill side with many rough rocks underneath the slope.

"Anyways, where am I now? A land different from that of Earth's? Although it should feel abit more pleasant if this is truly heaven. Maybe I'll try a trick to see if this is heaven at all. The Bible once said that in heaven no pain nor sorrow would come to its inhabitants."

Josef took out his bayonet and attempted to scrape his palms slightly with the edge of the blade.

'Achh! That stings!' 'This is definitely not what the Bible told me. I knew it, religion just messes with the minds of people, to control. A Great garden of Happiness beyond the afterlife, huh? Tsch.' as Josef scoofs.

Then he remembered about his diary, and he opened his left leg pouch and see his diary nowhere. Then he check his shirt pocket and his medal was missing. He smiles.

"At least, Ernst did took my diary. My legacy lives on, on Earth? I guess."

"At least I'm somewhere now. Away from Earth, probably." Josef sighs as the looks over the seemingly uninhabited stretches of land with features he doesn't recognize.

Then, he spots a wagon full of chopped wood pulled by horses, there's something strange about the man driving. He then gets an idea of what he should do next.

"I'm going to have a long day ahead of me." Said Josef as he stood atop the hill. An old legend ends and a new story begins.

References

[1] ## Military jargons and weapons ##

Katyusha – A USSR made rocket artillery first built and fielded by the soviets during World War 2. Officially known as the BM-13 launcher, light BM-8, and heavy BM-31s the Katyushas of World War II, were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. It's got its nickname "Katyusha" from a popular wartime song at the time, written and composed by Mikhail Isakovsky going by the same name "Katyusha".

Kar98 – The standard rifle of Nazi Germany during World War 2. It fires 7.92x57mm Mauser ammunition and has an effective rage of up to 500/1000m (iron sights/telescopic sight). It's essentially a cut-down barrel version of the Gewehr 98 as to avoid the treaty of Versailles. It remained the primary service rifle of Germany until the end of war in 1945.

Stielhandgranate – Standard "stick grenade" of the German military during World War 2. The grenade is considered a "concussion" type grenade since it relies on the explosive force rather than the fragmentation of the grenade, it can be fitted with a fragmentation sleeve though to maximize it's anti-personnel uses. It is one of the most easily recognized military weapons of the 20th century. Its design has been widely copied by other countries, especially the countries controlled by communist states such as, China.

Browning Hi-Power – A single-action, semi-automatic handgun that fires 9mm ammunition. It is based on a design by gun inventor John Browning and completed by another gun inventor named Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale (FN) of Herstal, Belgium. The Hi-Power is one of the most widely used military pistols in history, issued in armed forces of over 50 countries.

PPSh-41 – Knowns as the "Shpagin machine pistol", is a Soviet sub-machinegun designed by Georgi Shpagin. It fires 7.62x25mm Torkev pistol ammunition Cheap and reliable, it is a very common weapon in the hands of Soviet soldiers and preferred weapon by shock troopers. It was one of the major weapons of the Soviet army during World War 2 and saw extensive combat use during the Korean War.

F1 – A Standard issue fragmentation grenade in Soviet armed forces during World War 2. It is based on the French grenade going by the same name "F1" and contains 60 gram of explosive charge.

Knight's Cross – The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross or simply the Knight's Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War 2. The Knight's Cross were awarded to those who show Exceptional Leadership or for an act of extreme battlefield bravery.

Volkkssturm – It was a national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War 2. It consists of conscripted males ranging from the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard. Members of the Volkkssturm received only basic military training with a brief indoctrination and training on the use of small arms such as Kar98s and Pazerfausts.

Mp 40 – A German made machine pistol that fires 9mm ammunition. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War 2. It was designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with inspirations from its predecessors, the Mp 38. It was used externsively by infantry, shock troopers, paratrooper, officers and even some high ranking general as their personal side arm. Its advanced and modern features made it a favourite among soldiers and popular in countries from various parts of the world even after the war. The Allies nickname for it was "The Schmeisser, Burp gun etc."

Hauptmann – German army/air force rank equivalent of Captain in Western Armies.

[2] ## Names of Places ##

Reichstag – The chancellery building of Germany built in 1894 during era of the German Empire. It is a historical government building that built to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. It was burnt down in 1933, in a conspiracy by the Nazis to blame the communists of the attack as a plot against the German government. Restoration attempts were made during the 1960s but, it was only fully restored in 1999 which became the modern meeting place for the German government, the Bundestag.

[3] ## Linguistic Translations ##

Verstanden – "Understood" in German

Ihn Deckung – "Take Cover!" in German

Mein gott – "My God." In German

[4] ## Names of Historic People ##

Joseph "Sepp" Allerberger – He was one of the most deadly snipers of the Eastern Front serving under the 144 Regiment, 3rd Mountain Division of the Wehrmacht. He's a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and the Sniper badge (Gold), only one of the three recipients. Josef Allerberger escaped captivity by the Soviets at the end of the war and went back home to Wals-Siezenhelm, Salzburg, Austria where he became a carpenter after the war. He was best known for his unconventional tactics of using field terrain, most notably when he used a camouflaged umbrella to cover his fore shadow in low terrains. He died in 2010 due to old-age health problems.

In this story, his personality is considered that of a country man who is sociable among many and cracks a few jokes occasionally to calm nerves of those around him, but as a professional soldier, he is calm and collected person, with a mind carrying out orders at a tactical level on the battlefield. Being from a family of carpenters, he is very creative with tools and traps, and can create simple items crafted from wood and stone out.

He does not let emotions get to him whether it is the number of enemies he has killed or settlements pillaged and destroyed, gotten used to such atrocities since he was deployed on the Eastern Front and is always a type to think first before he shoots. Despite being cold hearted towards his enemies, he would never shoot civilians and surrendering soldiers since he does not take any form of pleasure in doing so and does not want to be grouped with the SS soldiers.

Despite being an ordinary men compared to most other Drifters, he has a collection of skills, tactics and experiences possibly far exceeding some of the drifters of military origins. He uses booby traps and distraction to lure enemies. He is also a master of evasion and escape due to his wartime experience as a sniper.


	2. Ch2: The Strange encounters and S Rev

**Legend**

"sample text" – normal conversations

'sample text' – character thoughts

*sample text* – sounds effects

(sample text) – linguistics translations

[*] – notice

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The strange encounters and a startling revelation**

In a life after death, Josef Allerberger believes he would sent to world free of burden but instead of meeting god, he met a strange man who lives in a large white corridor who sends him to another dimension which is far from heaven. Stuck in a world he has no knowledge of, Josef struggles to find contact with other people who live the lands. Soon, he stumbles upon an opportunity which he sees a horse draw cart driven by a person with long ears.

* * *

 **In another world, Orte's Southern territory**

'I should find other inhabitants of this world to understand abit more about where I am.' Josef thought to himself.

"First, I need to find out what I still have and also my condition. That tank's mg must have pierced though me."

He proceeds pat down his shirt, cloak, and pants. 'There is a coil of bandage around my waist area soaked with blood and the shirt and the cloak has some holes in the middle it should still last a while. The helmet still seems to be fine though abit dented. Darn it's so stuffy in my head. I got to take the helmet off.'

Josef takes the helmet off and tied it to his Y-straps.

Then, he checks through his pockets and his bags to see what he brought along. He checks his ammo pouches, Bread bag, Gas mask canister and his assault pack. He finds his pistol still in his hands, 2 grenades clipped to his suspenders, a bayonet, and holstered over his shoulders are his Kar98 sniper and a PPSh-41 submachinegun which he looted from a dead Russian soldier.

"Cleaning kit, special adjusting tools, some Reichmarks[1], 1 day worth of rations, a candy bar, 4 small dosages of morphine, 3 bandages, 2 gauze dressings, a can of decontamination salve[1], a small halazone pill bottle[1], a compass, a wrist watch[1], a map of Berlin, Field cap, Rain Cape[1], small cloth towel, Water canteen (one-third full), shaving kit, lighter, cigarettes, some playing cards, a Swiss knife, nylon spool, a small camo paint can."

He then threw out the map of Berlin as it was useless. And puts on a field cap.

"65 rounds of Kar98, 160 rounds of PPSh ammo and 20 rounds of Browning HP ammo. And 2 stielhangranates, one a smoke, also 5 F1 grenades and one tripwire AP mine."

"This would last me for about 11 engagements, if I use the ammo sparingly."

Then, he feels something metallic and round in his assault pack. He takes out a pair of binoculars that Ernst, the Volkkssturm private gave him.

"Thanks, Ernst. I owe you for this."

He peers through the binoculars from the hilltop to examine the plains on the ground, adjusting the focal knob to the sides. He spots a country trail and on the far end of the trail…., he see something in the distance kind of a shadowy object coming down the road at a steady pace.

Josef focuses the lens abit more and sees a horse driven cart moving on a primitive country road carrying wood stacks driven by a peculiar man with long ears.

Josef wonders what that person is.

'I'll stop the cart and ask them.' As he went down the hill from the other side and waited near the roadside for the cart to pass by see what information he can obtain from the elf peasant.

Josef is experienced in dealing with villagers in rural country during his deployment to the Eastern front. He knows how to be on the positive side of the villagers' trust. He could also tell if they were suspicious.

Just when the cart passed by the hill, Josef walked over to the middle of the road and waved at the peasant. Signalling it to stop for a while.

"Halten Sie es halten. Bitte hör auf für eine Weile." (Hold it hold it. Please stop for a while.) He shouted.

"Hallo mein Name ist Josef. Es ist schön, jemanden hier zu sehen! Kannst du in welchem Land bin ich jetzt?" (Hello my name is Josef. It's nice to see someone around here! Can you tell me what country am I in right now?)

The elf peasant looked startled and soon the confusion turn into fear.

Knowing what that face means, Josef quickly replied "Ich bin nur ein verlorener Reisender. Ich meine kein Schaden." (I'm just a lost traveller. I do not mean any harm.)

But the elf man not being able to understand Josef shouted "Drifters!" and left quickly with his horses faster than before the encounter.

"Wait! You still haven't listened to what I have to say! I can give you a reward for telling me, I have some cigarettes, if not candy for you!" Josef shouted at the elf peasant who is now far away from him.

'Crap, if they think I'm some kind of exotic animal. The news might start spreading around someone or something might come find me. I better prepare to move.'

"Well, what a great way to start a new life in this so called heaven. This is probably not heaven, that person didn't have wings." Josef sighed.

Then he pondered for a moment.

"Rather reminds me of that creature from an old folklore book that I used to read at my grandfather's home….."

He thought for a moment and he exclaimed "Of course, why didn't I notice that before!? That was an elf!" "So, elfs exist in heaven? Hmmm, not really, they live in the woods and are said to be immortal beings."

Then, the whole situation got more frustrating for the usually cool headed Josef. He soon exploded with all the thoughts he had in mind, "Arrrgh! Enough! No thinking about it. This isn't heaven at all! Who the hell was that guy back in that bright hall!?"

Josef breathes in heavily and let's out another sigh. 'Forget it. Now I have other things to worry about. First, they can't understand my language. Second, that means I can't go around asking for help recklessly. Third, I need to find food and shelter.' 'Shouldn't I just go and follow that man and find his village? Maybe his house has some food, I could sneak in.'

Then suddenly, he feels very tired and starts to lose concentration. 'Ohh, right. I haven't slept for days back in Berlin when all those damn Soviets kept crawling around the apartment ruining my sleep time. I guess I should just start making my own temporary shelter.' Josef thought to himself.

Heading back to the hillside, he remembers seeing a forest behind him when he climbed down the hill. Josef heads to the forest and approaches one of the trees. He drops his pack and rifle, takes out his bayonet and tries to break a few branches and leaves down as he carefully climbs the tree.

He while he was at it, Josef spots another tree, bearing some strange looking fruits that looks like grapefruits. Josef thought to himself, 'No, better not think of eating it. I know nothing about this forest or this world, eating fruits you don't know can be dangerous.'

But then, his stomach growled. He rolls his eyes up as if he's looking at himself disappointed, "Guess this is what you call a bet. Do or die starving."

A few minutes after he collected enough branches and leaves to make his tent and bed, Josef head over to the tree bearing the fruits. He swallowed his throat before he plans to climb the tree. Josef then carefully places his leg around the tree's bark and starts to slowly climb on it steadily reaching closer to the branch.

Once he reaches the branch bearing the fruits, he stretches out his arms with a knife in hand to cut the small branch that is holding the fruits. He attempts to cut down the branch several times but at the 3rd time manages to cut the branch off the tree.

'Great!' he thought to himself as he starts climbing back down from the tree. He walks over to the fallen branch and plucks the fruits from it.

Then he uses his knife again to cut open the fruit which has a rather soft skin. Then, he looks inside of the fruit and see a rather white slimy surface like tissues with a few seeds in the centre. 'This should be edible? Only one way to find out.'

'Here goes nothing." As he slices a halve of the fruit into a wedge and slowly takes a bite.

'Mhmm, it tastes sweet, buttery and it quenches my thirst. At least, now my hunger and thirst has been taken care of.' He thought to himself as he slices the cut fruit into small wedges.

About 5 minutes later, he was satisfied with the helping of the fruit and keeps the rest piled next to a boulder where he places his tent.

"I need some more grass around here to tie down the tent." Josef said to himself.

He look up at the sky and sees that it is getting very late.

"I need to hurry up. Still might need a campfire." He thought to himself.

A few hours later, it was dark and near the boulder a man wearing a rain cape can be seen sitting close to a warm soft yellow glowing campfire as it slowly waves around in the cold night air.

*Crackle**crackle**crackle*crackle*

'It sure is cold at night, I'm glad I kept my old rain cape, better than nothing.'

Josef can be seen shuffling playing cards in his hands with beautiful vintage art pictures of the Austrian countryside and folks who live there and then tossing an old Reichsmark coin into the air before landing back in his hands. 'I wonder how is home right now? I hope everyone in gramps town is doing fine.'

Then he puts his hand in his shirt pocket and took out a cigarette box and a lighter. 'No, I shouldn't be smoking. I should save it to trade with locals.'

'Besides Lighting a cigarette at night is a really bad idea. Who know what kind of manbeast might be lurking. This world really is weird, truly out of place.' Then he looks closely at the lighter and smiles. It was once a lighter owned by another sniper he knew from his Regiment.

'I hope he's still alive. A guy like him would take a battery of 150mm howitzers to all firing within 200 yards range to kill him.' Josef says with a grin on his face.

Then, out of one of his shirt pocket, he notices his family photo taken before he joined the Wehrmacht with his father and his grandfather and a younger sister.

He looked very sad at that moment before he motions to throw it into the fire. At the last moment, he held his own hands back and immediately puts the photo back into his shirt pocket.

'Well, the past is past. I'm technically a deadman living in another world. It will only be a drag to have nostalgia of a past life.' As he shrugs off.

'I think it's time for a nap.'

*Haaaah*

'Gott, I haven't slept in days.'

Then he puts out the campfire and retreats to his tent to sleep.

That night, he thought he heard rustling noises coming from 10 feet away in a nearby bush. Having barely enough sleep, as if by instinct, he got up to look around with his rifle ready, keeping his eyes and ears open. He searched around the tent and finds nothing and then he searches around the nearby bush but found no one hiding.

'Ahhhhh….these habits are always there. But that's fine, better be aware than to have your throat gutted by someone while you sleep.' Josef groans with his eyes looking like they are about to shut any moment.

He goes back to his sleep again. Later that night, he thought he heard some kind of radio voice chatter.

The next morning, he goes back to the bushes to look again and find out someone was actually there last night. He tenses up greatly from the discovery, but quickly goes back to the usual calm minded-ness.

'I don't think I can just run away. Whoever this stalker maybe must be been tracking me.'

'I need to set up a trap around this area and stay for one more night. And wait for this stalker to fall for it.' He thought. A few moments later, he went further into the forest to cut down more branches and leaves and, rooted out weed to be used for the trap.

"This should be used to craft a webbing trap that I can place with dried leaves on the ground near the bushes."

'I want to take this stalker alive. Maybe he might be tracking me for a reason. I need to know clues as to what happened in that white room and where the actual heck am I. He might know something.' He thought to himself.

Josef started weaving the grass weed into the branches and twisting them vigorously to make plant fibers. He makes one and then, places it in the location from which he heard the rustlings the other night in one of the bushes securing them with some 30 inch wide stones concealed behind the branches.

Then he carefully attaches a piece of nylon wire to the contraption from which the stalker would likely rest to observe him. Then he covers the traps with dried leaves similar to the bushes.

The trap would be triggered when the nylon wire gets pulled and the trap would be activated pulling the web up to the tree.

'Now for the waiting game' Josef thought.

He then proceeds to have a serving of the strange Grapefruit he picked the other day.

"It sure does taste like a melon."

Then the night came and Josef didn't stay up long near the campfire and quickly went back to sleep. As the night passed by, he didn't hear anything. It all seems as if it was just pointless to set up a trap thinking it was a stalker.

Suddenly, he can hear the same voice chattering from the last night again but this time it was interrupted by a sudden shaking sound of the tree and the web from which the trap was setup.

"EEEKKKKK! WAAHHH!" the voice of the stalker as he was caught in the trap.

'Got you!' as Josef sprung up from his bed with his rifle ready in hand. He dashed out of his tent to go and meet his stalker.

"Well, what do we have here? Someone is rude enough to be spying on me this late at night. Did you actually think you could fool me twice? Why else do you think I stayed here after you came snooping around my camp last night?" Josef said with a grin on his face.

When he approached closer to take a better look, it turns out to be a young girl in white uniform with a necktie that has the Star of David at the end. She has silver haired twintails donned with a pair of pink hair ribbons and wearing short pants and violet striped stockings and wearing glasses.

Josef was shocked for a moment as to how ridiculous her "costume" is. It looked like something out of a magician show. But then, he comes back to his senses and realizes the girl is still a suspicious person who has been stalking him since the past day. Josef bolted his rifle and aimed at the girl.

"Don't move, don't shout or I'll end your life in a bloody mess!" he threatened the girl.

"EKKKk!"

The girl was shocked, but she stopped moving.

"It's not nice to be a peeping tom, Fräulein.[2] I know you have been stalking me since last night. You tell me everything. You seems to know about all of this. Spill your beans and I'll let you off."

"Where am I? Why am I brought here? What is with that get up of yours that looks as if you are from a circus? But First of all, Who are you?" said as he kept his aim on her remained ever so steady.

The girl could not muster enough courage to respond to him, still whimpering in fear.

Josef sighed than said, "Listen, I don't mean to actually startle you. I don't normally shoot girls but I don't like the ones stalking me either. It reminds me of the Soviet partisans."

Then she finally spoke, "I'm not here to stalk on you. I'm here to protect you and bring you to group with other Drifters."

Then Josef felt surprised, "What? You understood what I spoke to you? Are you know Deutsch?"

The girl replied, "No, but I can translate what you are saying through my magic items."

"Magic-what!?" asked Josef in disbelief.

"Please just let me go now. I promise not to harm you! Guarding you is my mission!" the girl whined frustrated.

Barely believing her words, Josef freed her from the net as he cuts it open with his knife.

The girl falls out of the net onto the ground relieved.

"Now tell me, who are you?" he asked.

The girl catches her breath for a few moments.

*Hahhhh**hahhhh**haaahhh**Pheeeeew*

"My name is Olmine, I'm a magician from the Octobrists. I was tasked with observing you and your activities so to speak. Our duty as the Octobrists is to protect the Drifters and bring them all together in preparation to fight against the Ends who will inevitably destroy the world. You are one of the Drifters."

"Wait, slow down. So first of all you say are a magician and then you said you are here to observe me and my activities. What the hell?! You are pretty much a weird stalker with a made up story, aren't you?"

"No, I can prove it to you. That I'm a full-fledged magician. Watch me." As Olmine takes out a piece of rectangular note paper, scribbled with some strange letters of Asian origin.

She throws the piece of paper at the opposite direction they were talking. And immediately, a bright circle forms below where the paper landed and spawn a large stone wall.

"Woah! What the hell was that?!" Josef asks.

"That is what I'm trying to prove. I am a magician." Olmine replied in a prideful tone.

"Alright, I believe you now. So what is this place? And also….what are Drifters?" asks Josef with a less hostile voice.

"You are in Orte, a powerful country that controls the largest region on this continent. Particularly, we are in the southern territory. Drifters…..they are others just like you who came from another world."

"Another world?! Does this mean I'm not a dead at all?" Josef asked in a now confused manner.

"Yes, you are a living soul who has memories from the otherworld. You are alive." Olmine replied.

"I see, so that's why I can still get hurt, yet I don't understand why I have been brought here. What is it about me being a so called "Drifter"?" asked Josef wanting to know the truth behind the white corridors lined with doors and the man sitting at the desk.

"As I said before, you are a person usually of exceptional qualities, famous warriors, military leaders and aristocrats brought from another world who, still retains humanity and has their own individual views on way of life."

"Why am I here, why did I not go to the afterlife?" asks Josef as he is now completely feeling lost.

He feels remorse for what he had done in his past life as a sniper, a man who killed hundreds of lives and that living will only bring pain to him and if he is ever given a chance to start life anew he would.

He cannot bear being unable to ever see his family or friends again. He wanted to see them once more. But now that he is in an unescapable situation where he is now being dragged into yet another war against the so called Ends.

"Why do I continue to live when my life should've ended back then in Berlin? Please I want answers. I have a reason to continue living anymore!" He asks looking rather angry.

Olmine, not being able to give enough reason pondered. She then remember the time when she observed him playing his cards at the campfire.

She saw his face so solemn yet somewhat sad as he looked at the cards that has pictures of a distant land, most likely his home and a family photo. That's when she understood.

"I believe that your life still has a reason to live on. You have been brought here to do accomplish something that you couldn't achieve in your past life in the other world. I believe it is fate that brought you here, to right the wrongs." She continued as she looked at him.

"No matter what you may have done in the past, now is the time to change it. To protect humanity in this world, people here needs the Drifters to fight against the evil Ends people. You seem like a man who wouldn't take a soul without reason."

"I may not know what it is like to live in a world without anyone you know. But when I met my grandmaster at the organization. I found a purpose and a reason to join the fight against the ends and save humanity of this world." Olmine then takes a deep breath before she prepares to say her last part.

"I'm sorry but I don't know what else to say but I believe that you will meet new people and make new friends as you live on here. You may find the same reason to fight as I did when you meet such people. People to live protecting for." said Olmine with all her wisdom and compassion.

After hearing her words, Josef realized the reason he was fighting for, the thing that separates human beings from other creatures, to give a reason to do things.

He remembered why he had joined the army and went on to fight, that was because he believed in the reason to fight for an ideal world for his people even though it was misguided and were in vain. He fought till the end with his resolve being to protect his country.

But when he saw the eyes of those people filled with dread and sorrow as the men from his country and the SS destroys everything they held dear, he began to open his eyes of the true nature of the war and the Nazi ideals.

He realizes that he is just as responsible for indirectly fulfilling the will of the Nazis by fighting their war of racial cleansing. Now that he is a soldier free from orders of the Ill-willed bureaucratic commanders and generals. Only now, he has the chance to do what he couldn't in his past life.

Josef then slowly tells Olmine, "Thank you. For telling me that. I think I understand what you are trying to tell me. I shall accept it." As he raises his head with a smile on his face.

"Damn, I can't believe I had a kid lecture me about life. Also, you saw me looking through my old family photo didn't you?" Josef let's out a smirk. "You stalker. Shame on you girl."

"Like I said! I'm not a stalker! I'm an observer. I observed you to see if you are planning to do something bad to other people in this world. Drifters are still much a liability though they are not ends!" Olmine snaps back at Josef before groaning,

"Are you ready now to go? The villagers are getting rumours about you. They are scared to even go long this road."

Josef now reborn as a new person says, "Yes, I am prepared and willing to find a reason to fight."

"Well said." as she turns away to head for another mission. Then, she stopped as if she forgot something.

"Oh by the ways, the reason I came here was to investigate on a new Drifter who appeared in this location after a report from a local elf villager told me about you. They seems too surprised by you when they said you spoke in a strange language they have never heard of. They say it sounds Barbaric." asked Olmine.

"What is that about being Barbaric!? That is a one damn insult upon my culture!"

Just as Josef was speaking, Olmine threw a seal paper charm at him. Josef caught the paper on his tongue.

Suddenly, he feels a shock run through his mouth followed by slight headache. 'Ouch! What was that surge of pain? It feels like I touched an electric wire!'

"You will be able to speak to anyone you meet in this world with that charm in your hands. Here have a spare just in case you run into another Drifter." Olmine then throw another paper charm. This time Josef catches it in mid-air.

"I will also give you this." As she takes out a larger folded piece of paper, in an instant the paper glowed lilac blue and Olmine tosses it at Josef.

"This is a map of this region in and around Orte's Empire. It's been enchanted with magic and a small red dot on there will move wherever you go. That's your current location."

"I marked a place on the map where Grandmaster is gathering all Drifters. When you reach there, remember to say that you were sent here by Olmine of the Octobrists. Understand?"

"Understood, thank you. Olmine."

"By the ways, my name is Josef Allerberger. You can call me Sepp."

"Good luck on your journey, Josef." Just as she said that she ran off through the thick forest of the night.

'I guess I'm all on my own, huh?" Josef says as his old self returns, chuckling.

Soon he packed his gear and looked at the fruit he collected.

"I guess I'll just eat it here." As he slices up one of them and eats if before slicing the rest of the fruit into smaller wedges draining out the slime and packing it into his bread bag.

"Alright, time to head out." As he runs straight at the direction that leads to the large castle like fortress on the map.

'I need to find out my real reason of being here. I'll join forces with the Octobrists and the other Drifters.' As he said to himself.

The two people who crossed paths had a similar reason to fight, now one follows another's path. What lies ahead for Josef Allerberger in this new Journey?

 **To be Continued.**

* * *

 **References**

[1] ## Military Jargons and stuff ##

Reichsmark – A form of currency used during the Nazi Germany era.

Salve – A type of ointment that is used to apply on the surface of the skin.

Halazone tablets – During the early 20th century, Halazone a chemical compound was introduced to purify drinking water in remote inhospitable locations. It was used in small amounts such as a pill to be added into a water canteen by soldiers from all sides.

Wristwatch – German soldiers carried watches to be coordinated with assault group and timing artillery from friendly an enemy sides. It is also used by snipers to know time of the day while waiting for their targets.

Rain cape – A standard issue waterproof poncho issued by the German army during World War 2. It can also be used to setup a tent with the tent kit, consisting of a few wooden poles and metal spikes.

[2] ## Linguistic Translations ##

Fraulein – German word for "girl"

* * *

 **Afterword**

Dear readers,

Thank you for picking up this story that I wrote. I'm so sorry that I didn't include an Afterword in the first chapter, my apologies. I meant to write it but I thought I didn't have much to say as I was trying to finish the story within 3 days. My college is drawing near. Soon, I'm going to be studying, loads, and loads. Before that I just want to finish a few chapters and think about writing again some other time, maybe the end of this year? Maybe. Anyways, thank you for reading!

Also about some of the element in the story turns into abit of a drama, but I assure you that I would include more action scenes in the future alongside some of the drama. I also apologize to those who are critical of my historical accuracies, I tried my best to keep things within the boundary, but some of the character I just felt like I want to bring out of my OC character Josef "Sepp" Allerberger fit for his role in this story. Also, I'm not a Nazi sympathizer. I don't like fascism or any kind of political ideals but I believe that whichever soldier he is on whichever side, there's the good and the bad. Not all of the Germans are Nazis, I see them as misguided people under a cruel unforgiving leader.

That is all I have to say. Please PM me or leave a comment in the reviews for what you want to see in future content or if you have any ideas you want to share, share it with me. Thanks again. Until next the next chapter, see you later.

 _ **Spearmann66**_


	3. Ch3: Other Drifters, Another Marksman

**Legend**

"sample text" – normal conversations

'sample text' – character thoughts

*sample text* – sounds effects

(sample text) – linguistics translations

[*] – notice

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Other Drifters, Another Marksman**

In the previous chapter, Josef Allerberger a former German sniper met a strange girl named, Olmine claiming herself to be a magician working for the Octobrists while she was observing his activities. He plotted to trap her in order to find out what's going on and set up a trap for her to fall. When he managed to capture her, he started asking her question about why he was here and why she was stalking him. Olmine tells him that he's a Drifter and that he is from another world sent by an unknown entity to fight against the Ends.

He soon realizes that he is not in the afterlife, but rather he was transported to this world by the strange man behind the desk in the door hallways. Josef relieves himself of his grief and accepts his situation before Olmine tells him where he has to go, to a place where her leader has gathered other Drifters to prepare for the war against the Ends.

* * *

 **Present Time**

Josef walks along a path between hills on one side and large trees on the other. As he marches on, he takes a sip from his water canteen and lets out a breath.

*Ahhhh*

Josef has tracked the woodlands and crossed countryside for days, foraging food and stopping by lakes and rivers whenever possible to replenish his food supply. He slept in his rain cape using it as a blanket to warm him on the cold nights. During his time crossing the country, he became familiar with the land and its climate. While also encountering strange creatures, some of which were hostile towards him.

He shot them down every time they started charging towards him with his rifle, and each time checking his magazine and his ammo pouches hoping he may avoid more of those creatures to conserve ammo unless combat is inevitable.

Those creatures looked almost like the ones from the fairy tale books he used to read as a child back at home in Austria. 'I wonder, why does it seem like that whoever wrote those books, are some kind of cross-dimensional traveler? It's like those Jules Verne's [2] science fiction novels.' Josef thought to himself as he continues on his trail getting closer to the destination.

He opens the map that Olmine gave him and looks over the position of the red dot that seems to be close to the purple circle marked over a drawn picture of a fortress. "I'm almost there, just 10 more kilometers and I'll be at that castle." He said to himself.

Then suddenly out of nowhere, sudden movements in the nearby trees could be seen for a few seconds and a strange monster jumps out from the tree line attempting to grab Josef, as he barely manages to dodge the creature as it hurls itself at him with its inhumanely big arms with huge claws. He then turns around in a crouched position and shoots the monster with his rifle. The monster was hit in its chest as it falls to the ground. He then proceed to take out his bayonet uses it to stab the creature that looks like a hybrid between a man and an ox multiple times in its heart to assure it is dead.

'Jesus! What is this thing?! It came out of nowhere!' As he reminds himself that he needs to save ammo for encounters against hostile bandits or soldiers who deosn't take Drifters kindly. Also, it might draw their attention if he keeps using his guns before he even reaches the castle.

Then as he get up, Josef thought he heard a slight of noise up on the hills and he tenses up. Out of a corner of his eyes, notices a reflection of something shiny and metallic behind the hedges on a hilltop above. Through survival instincts, he jumps to the ground just as a loud familiar sound was heard.

*Bang* *phooon* as a bullet ricochets off the ground where the shadow of his head laid. He then rolls quickly to the side of the side of the hill from here the shot came from. He recognizes the sound of the gun report as that of a Mosin Nagant rifle[1]. He is sure that whoever fired at him was a Soviet sniper.

Just as he plans to move again, he feels something pushed against his head like a piece of metal rod and the familiar sound of a sling rubbing against the side of a gun. *Klink*

"把你的枪放下，你的胳膊在你的头！ 远离武器！" (Put your gun down and your arms over your head! Away from the weapon!) an Asian male voice spoke to him from behind.

Having been cast with the translator magic spell during his meeting with Olmine, Josef understood what the Chinese man was saying. He does what the man told him as he slowly puts down his rifle and puts both of his hands on the back of his head.

"其他武器也。 放下他们！" (The other weapons too. Drop them!)

Josef then places his hand on his waist and pulls out his bayonet and pistol slowly and puts them on the ground, before moving his hand to a sling over his shoulders to un holster his submachinegun and dropping it too to the ground.

"现在转身，在那里移动！" (Turn around and move over there!) the voice commanded him. When Joseph turns his head around, he sees a soldier in Chinese communist uniform holding his PPSh- 41 submachinegun at him as motion his gun slightly to the other side of the dirt road.

Josef started walking towards it as the soldier kept his gun aimed at his back. Once he reached the other side of the road, he hears footsteps behind him coming from the hill where the rifle shot came from. Trashing sounds of the bushes can be heard for a short while before a soft thud of a person landing on the ground.

"Well what do we have here, fellow comrade. A lone fascist sniper going somewhere all on his own out in the open daylight without cover. I wonder where he came from." A man's voice spoke with a Russian accent.

Josef then turns around to see a Caucasian man wearing Soviet military uniform in a sniper combat gear, aiming his TT-33[1] pistol at him. The Russian man's face, reminds him of someone from a Russian newspaper he saw during his deployment on the Eastern Front. The man smiles cunningly at him, the same way Josef smiled when he captured Olmine.

"I am a friendly, please stop pointing your guns at me. You are shooting at the wrong guy." Josef says as he tries to persuade them that he is not their enemy. In the ears of the Russian soldier he hears, "Я дружелюбен, пожалуйста, прекратите указывать на меня свои пушки. Вы стреляете не в того парня." meaning the same as what Josef told him in English.

The Russian was surprised by the fluency of the German soldier as he thought that not even regular German soldiers deployed on the eastern front speaks anywhere near with that much fluency. It left him stunned for a moment before he went back to being himself, smirking at Josef. "Hmm, your Russian is very good, German. Were you planning to defect to the Soviet Union as a communist, or are you just a spy working for the Nazis?" the Russian soldier responded.

"It's a long story but I'm telling you the truth, I'm not your enemy, I'm not a spy either. I'm no longer a soldier of Germany." Josef tried to talk to them out of it as the Chinese soldier becomes more and more confused as to what is going on between him and the Russian.

"And why should I believe you for that? You look out of place, yet you were eagerly marching on going to a place you know, whereas you don't belong to this world just as much as us. You know something don't you?"

Then the Chinese soldier cuts into their conversation and says, "你在那边和纳粹说什么？ 我们应该捆绑他，打败他，毫无意义，所以他开始告诉我们关于发生了什么的真相." (What are you talking to that Nazi over there? We should tie him down and beat him up senseless so he starts telling us the truth what's going on.)

Josef knowing what he heard, tells the Chinese soldier, "There no need to beat me up. I'm a friendly, I'm also not a Nazi, and I don't belong to the German military anymore. I can explain to you everything I heard from a local here. About why we are here."

The Chinese soldier was surprised, just as much as the Russian soldier when they heard him speak to him in Chinese from their ears' perspective. Why would a German spy need to understand Chinese? He would have been spying on the Russians as the Germans weren't exactly on a direct confrontation against the Chinese during the war. Besides he is wearing a uniform badge belonging to a regiment serving on the Eastern front in the war against the Soviets.

"Do you actually know mandarin?" the Chinese soldier asked. "No. As I was saying, it's a long story. If you really want to know then you better stop pointing your gun at me. Trust me, I will not run away or attack you. In fact, I want to bring you guys to that place this guy here is asking me about." convinces Josef to the Chinese soldier.

The man lowers his gun but the Russian however, kept his pistol pointed at him. "Can you stop already? What I told you about myself is the truth. I will talk more if you would put your rifle away." said Josef as he groans.

Josef looks into the soldier's eyes as he could tell that the man is just as eager to know what is going on as much as he did when he first arrived to this world. The man looked back at him in his eyes for a few seconds before lowering his rifle.

"Fine, I'll trust you for now, if you can start telling us what you know." Josef felt relieved.

"Thank you."

He was relieved that he didn't have to resort of extreme measures, since he kept his eyes focused on the Chinese soldier's combat knife while they were talking earlier, averting his eyes slightly so the Russian guy doesn't notice. He was going to use the Chinese soldier as a hostage during his escape. But he figured it wouldn't turn out too well if he does that.

*ROARRRRRRRR*

Suddenly, a loud animal roar could be heard from the supposedly dead minotaur that Josef killed earlier that was laying on the road only a few meters away from them. The monster jumped up to its feet in a split of a second and the three men didn't have enough time not able to life up their guns to shoot at the minotaur as it moved very fast and swings it's massive claws at them.

*BANG!**SPLATTER*

The minotaur stopped moving just before striking its claws at the men. It falls to the ground with a blown up head. The men looked puzzled. "Who shot it?" Josef asked. "No, not me." "Me Neither, I barely moved my barrel to aim at it's head." The other two replied.

"Maybe you should ask him." The Chinese soldier pointed to the woods behind Josef.

Then from behind the woods, a figure of a man appears out to the open with a rifle held in his arms. He is wearing a winter suit that covers him from head to toe and a mask covering his face.

"Did you boys needed help? Perhaps you can start explaining now, strangers?" the man asked.

"Yeah, thanks whoever you may be. We almost became minced meat if not for you."

The man takes off his face mask and unfastens his bulky winter suit, removing it. The man has a Scandinavian look with one disturbing feature that stands out being that chunks of flesh on the left side of his face were missing, as if someone shot his face with a gun. He is wearing a military uniform underneath the suit, belonging to the Finnish army.

"Who are you?" Josef asks.

"I'm someone that 700 lost souls wanted to see before their lives ended in a flash. They called me The White Death.[2]" The man replied.

Suddenly, the Russian soldier's eyes were wide open and froze as if there was the Grim Reaper behind them who is about to cut their lifeline. They stood very still for a few moments before the Chinese asked. "Hey are you two standing there like statues."

Josef stood still for a moment before his mouth starts to move again. "It can't be. Why is he here?" "You are Simo Häyhä[2] aren't you?!" said the Russian Soldier.

"But I thought you were killed in action during the Winter War. In a report from the war, it said that one of the forward patrols from the army found him after multiple attempts to track him down, they shot him dead in the face with an explosive bullet. He was last seen lying on top of the ridge motionless as his comrades came running over to save him." The Russian soldier added.

"Well I don't know what you mean but I'm still here in front of you. Well those sneaky bastards from your side really did some damage to my face." As Simo feels around the left side of his face where the bone used to be.

"It turns out I was alive when I woke up, I couldn't feel my cheeks on the left side but it wasn't bleeding at all. Then I looked around and realized that I was in a very strange place far from home in Finland."

He continued, "I was in a long hallway lined with doors that looked like a hospital but it has no windows nor room numbers. There was a man sitting across the hallway at a table staring at me. I so confused, so I asked him where was I. The man ignored me and started writing on a piece of paper in his hands. And before I knew it, a door opened beside me and it sucked me into a huge void. Out of the door I landed near a huge forest. The first thing I saw was a German soldier, walking down a road going somewhere. I quietly followed him from behind the trees bushes." As he turned his side to face Josef.

"I saw a creature rushing through the woods and I laid down observing what unfolded next. You sure have some good reflexes. Then after you managed to kill it. I saw you getting pinned down by another sniper from above the hills. I looked up with my binocular and saw the Russian sniper, I almost decided to act when another guy, an Asian looking soldier came out from behind the hedges and pointed his submachine gun at you. That was when I thought, something wasn't right at all." The man cleared his throat before resuming.

He continued, "So, I kept low and heard you speak in two different languages foreign to your native tongue. I was confused for a while. When I saw the monster got back up from the dead very close to where you three were, it was when I decided to blow my cover and take a shot of the beast. So here I am now, completely sure I am not in Finland anymore."

"So are we done trying to get at each other's necks? We are not enemies here. I can explain what is going on." Josef as he lamented on the misunderstanding between them as he asks for others to allow him to speak.

Josef then proceeds to tell the other three about meeting Olmine, about them being Drifter, the existence of the Ends, a great war that will ensue in a few days' time when the Ends will appear and destroy the world and the gathering of the Drifters by a magic organization called the Octobrists at a nearby fortress.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. Are you saying that we are like some kind of chosen warriors sent to this world a strange guy in a casual suit, to fight some evil people who apparently also came from our world to kill everyone here?! Also can you explain how you could speak 10 different languages like you are some kind of world traveler?" the Russian man asked.

"It's magic. I know you won't believe me but after I met the Magician girl, she gave me a paper charm written in some characters that allowed me to know any kind of language. It's kind of like a universal translator." Josef responded to the Russian who is still in disbelief.

Josef looked at him and sighed. "Fine, I'll prove it to you. Just don't flinch okay?" as he unfastens his bag and takes out a folded piece of paper. Simo looks at the paper curious as Josef unfolds it. He proceeds to press the charm on to the Russian's chest.

Suddenly, the Russian feels a surge of electricity go through his head as if he touched a live wire. "What was that? What did you do to me?" feeling awkward.

The Chinese soldier asked, "You alright comrade? You looked like remembered something pretty awful." Then the Russian looked at him and asked, "Did you just talked to me? In Russian?"

The men looked abit shocked at discovering that they could now talk to each other as if they know the same language even though they haven't learnt it. The Russian then pulled the arms over his face laughing and groaning at the same time, "This can't be happening. It's got to be a crazy dream."

"No, it is real. Magic does exist in this world different from ours. I know what it feels like to be exposed to something you can't understand at first, but you will get used to it." Josef answers the Russian man who understood now that Josef isn't a spy at all.

"Well, I believe you now. Let's introduce ourselves shall we? Forgive me for being suspicious of you. I am Major Ivan Sidorenko[2], 1st Baltic Front, 1122nd Rifle Regiment. I fought in the Battle of Moscow. What about you German?"

"My name is Josef Allerberger, my friends call me Sepp. I'm a corporal from the 2nd Batallion, 144th Regiment, 3rd Gebirgsjäger Mountain Division served on the Eastern Front and fought till the Battle of Berlin. I'm a sniper, just like you Major. I've seen you in a Soviet state newspaper and you name was on the sniper bounty list in the Eastern Front command headquarters." Josef grins.

"Glad to know about my infamy in your military, corporal. I've known about you too, there was another man from your division who did a big number on our troops alongside you adding up to 600 casualties on our side rom your division alone." Ivan replies while he too was grinning.

"So what happened, in this Battle of Berlin?" Ivan asked wanting to know what finally became to the outcome of the Great Patriotic war.

Josef closed his eyes for a moment before sitting down as he answers, "The whole situation looked grim for both sides as the Russians suffered significant loose as the advanced through the city and we lost our men defending with whatever elements left of the German military and police. The hole streets was mess, the building were torn down wherever you looked." Josef looked at the other three and continued talking about how the whole war.

"It was apparent from the beginning that we weren't able to defend the city from the siege by the Soviets, I hate to admit it but we lost. Our 5 years of war on the Eastern Front was all but in vain. The only thing I wished then was to get out of the hell hole and return to my home country of Austria." As Ivan listened to what Josef said without breaking out into a shout of "URRRRAH!" or laughter. He understood everything that happened, and was only glad the war was over by then.

"Your turn Chinese man. I'm done here." Josef without much to talk about the past anymore, he calls out to the Chinese soldier.

"I'm Corporal Zheng Tao Feng[2], 8th Company, 214th Regiment, 24th Corps. I serve the People's Volunteer Army, fighting a war against the imperialists in Korea, 1951. We were engaged in a heated battle against the Americans at the Shangganling Hill, we lost many men that day. Around Late December of 1952 our Company was assigned to the rear Echelon forces, we headed back to Pyongyang on a train. When we passed through a railroad bridge over a mountain pass, a group of American Fighters spotted us and came down to strafe the train and dropped bombs on the bridge."

"Suddenly, the train came screeching to stop but then it started feeling like the train was getting pulled down from the bridge and then I heard loud crashing sounds as everyone in the train cabin got tossed around as if we were in a rolling wheel. Next the moment later, I was thrown out of the window and was falling into a steep frozen valley below. I watched in horror as the train went tumbling down into the valley and some of my comrades being hurled into air as they too fell to their demise below." Zheng then paused before looking dismayed as to what happened next.

"Then, I remember waking up in a room. It was like I went to heaven. I met a man in the room, I tried to talk to him but he didn't respond before he wrote something on a piece of paper that sent me through a door towards a dark void. Then I opened my eyes to find myself still in the train, but no one was around, not even dead bodies but there was equipment laying around. I kicked open a door on the side of the train cabin and I got off from the wrecked train to find myself in a completely different place. It looked like one of the places I saw in a western film about a countryside."

"At first I thought I was dreaming but then some creatures approached as they tried to kill me, but then the Russian sniper shot them from behind with his rifle, saving me. He looked badly injured so I decided to go back into the train to search through a paramedic's bag, then I treated his wounds by myself, waited till the next day to go and bury those creatures so as to not raise an alarm on whatever is around us. Then he woke up and first, we couldn't understand but we both knew who we were working for so we built a mutual trust to work upon, using only basic hand signs."

Zhang finishes to tell Ivan to continue from his point about what happen up until now after he died. "I guess it my turn now then." As Ivan begins his turn to tell about what happened up until he came to this world.

"I was an assistant commander of the Headquarters of the 1122nd Rifle Regiment in the 1st Baltic Front assigned with observation of enemy troop movements. I often took part in forward scouting missions bringing with me a trainee under my command each time to sharpen up their skills. We always tried to keep low profile and kill as many fascists as we could while helping out local partisans." He paused abit with a hand held over his eyes as he tries to remember what happened next.

"Then, in early January 1944 outside a town in Estonia, just yesterday, I ran into a big firefight with a German foot patrol after I thought that the area was clear of patrols for the time of the schedule. That was when I was shot multiple times and my trainee squad mate carried me while escaping from the pursuit. I was losing lot of blood when my trainee kept telling me not to die yet, but gradually I couldn't hear what he was saying any longer and my sense were going numb."

"Afterwards my vision went black and I blinked my eyes to wake up in a white hallway that seemed endless, lined with multiple doors. I saw that man sitting at the desk reading his newspaper like he doesn't even notice me. I called out to him and then he said, "I have a lot to do, now move along." As he wrote down his signature on a piece of paper that looked like a list of people to be transferred, but to where I don't know? Suddenly, a door opened beside and it sucked me into a void." Ivan took a deep breath and continued to talk.

"I found myself in this new world I didn't know about, just like what Zheng said. Then I saw him being corned by strange wildbeasts that looked like men but much different. I didn't think much back then but I thought I had to help him out so I shot the man beasts with my Mosin, killed all 5 of them with 2 while they were running away. That's when I collapsed in the fields. Probably Zheng carried me to the train car afterwards to tend my wounds." said as he smiles at Zheng, thanking him with his gratitude.

"By the morning I woke up and saw myself with him looking out for hostile beings with his rifle. I spoke with him but only managed with hand signs. After I felt abit better eating some canned rations, we headed out to another place far from here where danger of being attacked by strange creatures but not before we managed to bury all the infantry equipment lying around in the train cars into a ground nearby taking as ammo as we could recover."

"That's when we met you, Josef while we were passing through the hills. We thought you were suspicious at first as you were after all, a Nazi soldier and you were heading towards somewhere you knew of. So we decided to capture you to get information. You wouldn't be alive if that bullet earlier was meant to kill you. You wouldn't even hear a thing." Ivan as he finished talking about what happened till the current point of time.

Josef smirks, "That the same thing I did with the magician kid. I thought she knew something too. So we are both even! Although I wouldn't have resorted to shooting at someone just to get information out of them." Josef and Ivan laughed together as if they were in unison. Simo Häyhä was looking somewhere into the distance when he suddenly spots smoke rising from a location no more than 5 kilometers away.

Simo Häyhä interrupts the laughter by saying, "I appreciate that we have all come to a point of cooperation after all that's happened but look over." As he motions his hand to a huge funnel of smoke rising a few kilometers away. "If we don't stop laughing around, we might get noticed by someone or something that's causing that to happen." As his voice reaches a more serious tone knowing some kind of activity is being carried out by a group of people near them.

"Shall we go and take a closer look? To know what's happening." Josef suggested.

Zheng agreed to what Josef is saying, while Ivan too reluctantly agreed since it's better to understand more about their current situation than to ignore it. Ignorance will lead to further danger of the unknown.

"Okay, I agree with you too. Besides we need to get some new friends around this part of the country, don't we?" Ivan agreed. "Okay, it better to work as a team than a bunch of roaming mercenaries." said Simo.

"Let's head out. Spread 8 meters away from one another. Let's rendezvous to the point at about 200 meters away from the smoke pillar. We cover in four sections facing opposite from each other. I entrust that role since we are all marksman. Once we get there, we will all be silent and use only hands to communicate. If we found something or that there's a change in plans, we need to regroup. Is that clear with all of you?" Ivan says as he takes command of the group.

"All right, you are the boss now. Yes, sir." Josef as he gets his stuff ready.

"How much ammo do we all have? I've got 58 rounds for my rifle, 160 rounds of Tokarev for the ppsh and 20 rounds of 9mm for my Browning-HP."

"I have got 250 7.62x54R for my rifle, plus 30 incendiary bullets. 100 7.62x25 for my TT pistol[1]. Also, a rifle grenade adapter for firing flare rounds, I have 5 of them. Zheng has about 300 rounds for his ppsh and he also has 200 for his rifle, in addition to 10 grenades we salvaged from the train cabin, there's still more that we buried them."

"I have 100 7.62 for my Finnish Mosin[1], 130 rounds for my kp-31 machine pistol[1]. I also got 3 smoke grenades." Simo replied as he check his ammo pouches.

"Alright, that should be enough ammo for our scouting mission. Let's go." Ivan gave commands as he picked up his rifle and called the other three. Josef then remembered something about being in a similar situation a few years ago on the Eastern Front, much like De ja Vu.

"Hey Ivan, what if we end up running into civilians? This might be a village on fire."

"For now, we can't say for sure. It could be a forest fire or burning of trash. We need to get a closer look. Understood?"

"Sure okay." As Josef kept his focus on the trail they are being lead to as they slowly walked through the forest while looking out for enemies. 'This just can't get worse, can it? It's going to be a long day before we reach the fortress.' As he thought to himself preparing for what is yet to come, the battle against the Ends.

They walked through the forest into the fray of the tree lines, with little did they know about the purges of demi-humans that the Orte's Empire has set into practice. Josef come face to face with a past experience he knew of.

 **To be continued.**

* * *

 **Reference**

[1] ### Military Jargons and Stuff ###

Mosin Nagant – A Standard issue bolt action rifle of the Red Army and other service branches of the USSR during World War 2. It fires 7.62x53R mm rifle rounds and holds 5 cartridges in its magazine with an effective range of up to 500/800+ m (iron sights/optics). It was produced from 1891 up until 1965 when it was fully replaced by the Drugnov SVD in all Branches of Soviet Military. Despite its age, it's been used by many armed forces and group over the year till present day, still a preferred choice by insurgents and some police units in modern day Russia. The most famous model was the Model 1891/30 that was used during the Great Patriotic war.

TT Pistol – Otherwise known as the TT-33, The TT pistol is a standard issue sidearm for Officers during World War 2. Its design was based on the FN Model 1903 semi-automatic blowback operated pistol. It fires 7.62x25 mm Tokarev pistol ammunition with an 8 round detachable box magazine.

Finnish Mosin Nagant – The Finnish military had long served with the Mosin Nagant since the Finnish was a Grand Duchy under the Tsarist times, so when they gained independence the Mosin Nagant remained in service with the new Republic army with slight modifications to the original rifle. In case of Simo Häyhä, it was a Model 28-30, which was used by the Finnish Civil Guard, formerly used as a competition rifle so it was manufactured very well with the highest grade steel barrel and carefully matched headspace. It is among the rarest variants of the Mosin Nagant family.

Suomi Kp-31 – A submachinegun manufactured in Finland by Tikka during The Winter War. It fires 9x19mm Parabellum rounds fed through a box magazine with a capacity of 20-50 rounds. It can also use a 50-71 rounds drum magazine. It was in service with the Finnish army until 1998 when it was replaced. Essentially the design of the 71 round drum magazine and the gun itself heavily influenced the design of the PPSh-41 by Georgy Sphagin which was mass produced in the USSR. In comparison, the Kp-31 can shoot more accurately then the PPSh-41 while maintaining the same rate of fire while using a drum magazine thanks to its longer barrel.

[2] ### Historical names of People and Places ###

 **Jules Verne** – A famous sci-fi novelist born in France. He was well known for being the author of the Adventure Novels in the series _Voyage extraordinaires_ , including _Journey to the Center of the Earth_ (1864), _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_ (1870), and _Around the World in Eighty Days_ (1873).

 **White Death** – It was a nickname given to Simo Häyhä by the Soviets during the Winter War. He was infamous among the ranks for the kills of over 800 of their men while hiding in plain sight in snow.

 **Simo Häyhä** – Born in a small village in the municipality of Rautjärvi, Viipuri province in the Grand Duchy of Finland. He was a Finnish Marksman who served in the Finnish Army during the Winter War (1939-1940). He was feared among the Soviets as he was reported to have confirmed kills of 505 during the war, with many more unconfirmed which may add up to over 800 kills. He was regarded to have the highest recorded number of confirmed sniper kills in any major war, making him the deadliest sniper in history. During the war, he was heavily wounded in the face after being shot by a team of soviet patrol who were out looking for him with an explosive bullet which resulted the loss of the left side of his face. However he survived and spent the rest of the Winter War in a hospital waking up on the day peace was declared between the Finnish and the Soviets.

Before the war, he was a hunter and farmer. At the age of 20, he joined the Finnish voluntary militia White Guard ( _Suojeluskunta_ ). He also took part in local shooting sport competitions in his home province, Viipuri. His was reportedly full of trophies awarded for marksmanship. He lived on to go back to his home town and continue life as a farmer. He died at the age of 96 in 2002 at a war veterans' nursing home in Hamina and was buried in Ruokolahti.

 **Ivan Sidorenko** – A former Red Army officer and a Hero of the Soviet Union, who served during World War II. Ranked a Major, he was the most celebrated Soviet sniper of the Second World War with 500 confirmed kills. He had also trained over 250 snipers during his service as a sniper instructor. He was sent to the 1st Baltic Front as an assistant commander of the Headquarters of the 1122nd Rifle Regiment. He was once reported to have destroyed a tanks and three tractors using incendiary bullets. Often times he was caught in multiple firefight with enemy soldiers during reconnaissance missions, in which he sustained serious injuries during a recon mission in 1944, Romania.

After surviving that incident he remained hospitalized until the end of the war in 1945 during which he was prohibited from seeing combat by his superiors due to his important value as a sniper trainer. After the war, he retired from the Soviet army and settled down in Chelyabinsk Oblast, in the Ural Mountains, where he worked as the foreman of a coal mine. He died on Febuary 19th 1987 at the age of 67 in Kizylar, Dagestan.

 **Zheng Tao Feng** – A Chinese marksman serving in the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War. He held a record of 214 confirmed kills in 32 days during the Battle of the Triangle Hill (1952) without the aid of telescopic sights. On January 11, 1953, Zhang, who had been enrolled in the army for no more than two years and together with soldiers of 8th company, 214th Regiment were sent to the Korea Peninsula to fight the UN forces. He and his company were assigned to the Shangganling hill, better known as the Triangle Hill by the American forces. He was equipped with an old Mosin Nagant without a scope. He spent 18 days at his position before he spotted an enemy and immediately aimed and fired 12 shots, only to miss them all. This eager action attracted enemy fire, which almost killed him.

After this, he carefully analyzed why he failed and figured out a technique using the iron sight to improve his shooting ability. Days later, he managed a good kill ratio of 7:9 or 7 out of 9 hits with the rounds he fired, which surpassed the ratio of experienced snipers. After the war, he went back to his hometown and lived till the age of 76 and died on April 29th 2007. He received an award of Combat Hero (2nd class) for his service during the Korean War.

* * *

 **Afterword**

Hello readers, thank you for picking up this chapter. Well, it seems I decided to add more characters to the story and well, change some of the actual historical facts to accommodate them. I'm sorry if this may put off some of the history fanatics for altering the history of the actual historic people, since I can't find any good candidate as most of the famous snipers actually lived through the old age, surviving the wars the fought in. There are some good candidates, but I don't think they have well…., better effect as the ones I chose in this story. I really didn't want any soldiers from the 1990s era, maybe up until somewhere like 1970s would be a good idea but still I only wanted to include the ones from the early 20th century. I might actually end up deciding to add a real OC character who has completely from fiction and not historic. I think about it for the future chapters. I know that things are only going to be much harder from here on. I need to take care of lot of things in irl too, so It's gonna be abit hard for me to concentrate on studying and writing.

Anyways, this chapter was abit late to come out for this week, I had to decide carefully on how to introduce the new Drifters into this story. The Chinese man was probably the hardest since I had to make sure that his untimely death has to coincide with the train because I need that wrecked train for the story to progress while I also need to make sense as to why would a train be used to carry soldiers to the rear echelon during the Korean War otherwise it wouldn't make any sense. I did as much research as I could.

Again, for the next chapter I have already thought of new materials for it, it is going to be filled with action in the next one! I'm going to be writing it soon but I fear I may not make it in time, but I'll look into the schedules so that there is still free time to write. Thank you for reading. See you again next time.

 **Spearmann66**


	4. Ch4: A Bloody Harvest Season

**Author Note**

Hi guys, it's been a while isn't? I was pretty worried about balancing my work time with writing fan fictions, lel. So this is going to be the 4th Chapter isn't? It's only getting better from here. In this chapter I have decided to include a scene from the original series, the part where a group of Orte's soldiers came and wrecked an entire village for helping the Drifters and Drifters comes in to save the elves. So it's gonna be something similar like that in here. Without further a do, let's get into it! :D

 **Legend**

"Sample Text" – Normal conversation

'Sample Text' – Character thoughts

*Sample Text* - Sound effects

(Sample Text) – Linguistic Translation

 _Sample Text_ \- Labels

-∞- - At same time

[x] – Notice

 **Chapter 4: A Bloody Harvest Season**

Far out to the edge of a forest on the countryside, there lies groups of elvish communities settled in a low lying plains in South Western Orte. It is a major agricultural province of the empire supplying nearly 80% of the total national food consumed by its citizens. But at times, there were gruesome purges of the "low-life" in order to cull the populations of those the central government deem unworthy of citizen rights and to save the harvest for themselves. In nearby village, a series terrible events unfolds.

 **Somewhere In The Forest**

A group of four men advanced through the forest almost as if running but carefully pacing not to make a lot of noise. The man in the front can clearly be made out as Josef, followed from behind by Ivan and Zheng while Simo Hayha guards their back flank. A column of smoke can be seen as they approach closer to it by every minute, they tightened their sense of awareness looking out for any image out of place in the treelines.

When it seems to go on abit longer, Joef raises his hand to signal the others to halt. The other immediately stopped.

"What's the matter? Saw someone?" Ivan Sidorenko asked.

"No, but we are very close to the smoke now, we should spread out to recon and rendezvous here." As he takes out a piece of map and marks a spot that is close to group of rocks and hedges.

"We meet at here, hmm…it seems that there's a small village close by, too close to the smoke." Josef pauses for a few moment as to what the smoke could mean. It seems all too familiar.

"What's the wait? We have to move, it might be that village must be in trouble. And that also means we are going to meet our enemy face to face, we should start preparing to scout the area." Simo said as he urged his concern over the possibility that a community of people maybe in trouble.

"Yeah, we should move. We'll meet here after we are done."

Everyone unholstered their rifle and quickly began to take their routes. Ivan decides to head East to a small stream while Simo heads West of the Forest near the open. Josef decides to head in the same direction as Ivan before parting ways to take up position on a nearby rock close to a footpath on the edge of the forest and Zheng goes over to the rendezvous site to wait.

The men used hand signals and agreed to using mirrors prior to leaving for the recon mission. They decided that if anything went wrong, Simo would signal using his mirror with a code of "two consecutive flash and a pause before third flash." But if they decide the enemy is a threat that would be "3 consecutive flashes".

As Josef walks up to the nearby rock to get a better view, he takes out his pair of binoculars and peers through it to scan the area. He soon sees a village, and just like what Ivan said. It was all in flames and even focusing abit more, he spots a field littered with gut, grime and blood from elves and horses and cows and dead bodies stacked on a fire pit. It was like a butcher fest, a complete hell. He could smell the thick smoke coupled with the stench of the dead bodies from there. When he looks over the village again, he would notice the true horror before his eyes. There were 4 Crucifixion poles at the center of the city with four bodies nailed onto them and there are also group of villagers huddled together surrounded by a group of soldiers.

 **In the Village**

A group of villagers can be seen surrounded by a platoon of soldiers from the Orte Empire and at the centre of the village square a burly man dressed in red cape could be seen standing in front of the villagers, hollering out in a foreign language.

"Sie Maracus aelst vin Drifters. Vis du allerges vinstadt!?" (You were in contact with the Drifters. How dare you claim innocence?!)

"Erest van punire du alles dieuteur!" (I will punish you all dearly!)

A man came out of the crowd of villagers and asked, "Vas erest du quetes!? Du pliefit rean aleute complaiges! Aquestes howet wille einit folaigen!" (What is your problem!? You people always complain! Asking us about something we didn't do!)

"Du vetir speilie zu mir vist draceht fiones!?" (You dare speak to me with such a tone!?) as the man in red cape kicks the elf in the face, almost breaking it to pieces.

*SLAM* *Splurt* *Ughhhh*

The elf man fell back with blood pouring out of his mouth and nose as another elderly man catches him.

"Sohn! Erest du alle rhinte!? Piles, sunges herest einit manst spilen zit! Erest meine folges, eir sehn elle mann drab eist ita domun froe elumbe. Erest werest mas folges!" (Son! Are you allright!? Please, stop he didn't mean to say it! It was my fault, I saw a man wearing strange clothing on my way home from lumbering. It was my falut!"

"Sitarya! Du erest autheus! Ateu cooperate punier, du erest alleu meirst spathe eqateu!" (Silence! You all are responsible! As a collective punishment, you all must pay equally!)

"Niverst tuten metors, du habeter eit zut spathe. Deiner alles menader Erest exerten du allet vitam humalien! Manner surten deim nil metery!" (Not to mention, you all have a gross amount of tax to pay."

(as a failure to comply with the laws of Orte. By all means I must execute you all low-lifes! Men show them no mercy!)

 **Back at the Rendezvous Point**

Josef watched the event unfold and immediately recognizes the old man in robes as the same person who he met on the road. 'What, is he doing here!? I thought he lived in a village far from here!' Josef thought as the old man hugs on to another younger men when the big man kicked him.

From the corner of his eyes, he sees hand signs from Zheng, saying "Let's shoot them now before he kills them! I must kill them bastards!"

Josef replied with his own hands, "No, we do not know how many of them there are! Need everyone to confirm." Simo replies using his hand signs, "There are only 30 of them, with our combined strength, we would be able to kill them all and setup a trap outside the village once they start coming after us." From the Eastern edge of the forest close to the stream, Ivan shows his hands signalling that he is moving back to the rendezvous point. Acknowledging, Josef waves to the others to report back to the rendezvous site.

Within a few mins everyone arrives, Ivan comes up to Josef and says, "I looked around, there's only one path that leads to the outside of the village. If we set up some kind of an ambush near the exit path, they won't be able to escape. Are we good now?" Ivan said as he was really enraged at what the soldiers had done. "Me and Zheng would ambush from behind and trap them while you and Simo start shooting when we are in position."

Looking at Ivan, he knows what they are up to as veterans. "Understood, we will execute. Let's move with haste, those guys don't look like they want to keep the folks alive." Josef says.

Meanwhile, somewhere close to the village along a foot path. Horse can be heard galloping along with soldiers shouting out to a group of kids and young man.

 **Somewhere near the footpath, West of the village**

Four elvish kids can be seen running with a man in white suit behind them. They were running for their lives from a horse man and 3 foot soldiers behind them. The young man, who appears to be from the Octobrists pulls the kids into nearby treeline while casting an illusion spell to fool the soldiers pursuing them.

"Thank you, for saving our lives. We just couldn't let them take Elie. She's been hiding among us boys dressed like us." The three elf boys were helping shelter Elie who escaped from the soldiers who took away their mothers, aunts and sisters to an undisclosed location near the Governor's residence. The boys hid her in their secret hideout for days when the soldiers found out about the place and dragged her and the boys out. Elie gasped for air before she starts to speak.

"I didn't think that they would go this far just because they were missing a girl from their roundup."

"Don't worry about it I was doing this on my own accord. It's got nothing to do with Octobrists." The young man replied.

Suddenly, the crystal ball in his pouch starts to light up and make buzzing noises.

"Freed! What are you doing!? I told you not to interfere with the elves and observe the Drifters! You planning on ruining our ties with the Orte Empire!? We have bigger problems than the purge!" The Grandmaster speaks.

"Sir, I can't just stand and watch these kids get killed in hands of those bastards! How are we better than these assholes when we just stand and watch the torture these folks!?"

Suddenly, a hand rips through the transparent barrier of the spell and pulls away Freed from safety along with the kids.

"Hey Octobrist, you dare interfere with us?! We would have crushed your silly little guild if we wanted to!" The Orte Sergeant shouted angrily as he kicked the magician.

*Bash**Bat**Bat**beating sounds*

"Ughhhh! Ack-k" as he spits out blood in agony.

The Sergeant pulls up the magician and forces him to the ground as the other 3 soldiers grabs the boys and kneels them as they unsheathed their swords ready to decapitate them.

"Stop this I am begging you!" Freed shouts out in gruelling pain as the soldier presses his foot on top of him.

"Raise your swords, ready...Attack!"

Just as they were about to bring their swords down on them. Gunshots could be heard 40 meters away.

*BANG**BANG-BANG*

In one moment all three soldiers went down onto the ground covered in a pool of blood and splatter of brain gore and skull fragments.

Everyone stood frozen and the sergeant with a pale dead face, looks behind him and sees a black shovel for a split second before his face got gnawed and head decapitated.

Elie screamed as the head fell off the sergeant's shoulder and the body fell over Freed's back. Freed looked behind him and saw 2 drifters, one holding a shovel covered in blood.

"Are you-," before Freed could finish, Ivan cuts the conversation shouting out orders.

"We are friendly. No time to question. We need to get to village exit now!" as Ivan shakes off the blood from his shovel, cleaning it.

"You people should go hide somewhere else." The two men started running towards the burning village leaving behind the Octobrist to take care of the kids.

"Are they really human?….Are they?." Freed said with a trembling voice.

"Such scary people." one of the boys said.

 **On the edge of the forest -** **∞-**

Josef and Simo were peering through their sniper scopes when they heard gunshots from Ivan's position and thought what went wrong. "What's happening over there? Did they ran into the enemy?" Josef asked.

"It won't matter. It's our side to act now. Bring them down!" as Simo bolts his rifle and shoots the soldiers closest to the villagers as they were about to kill them.

 **In the Village -** **∞-**

The gunshots from the west side of the village immediately alarmed everyone. The soldiers froze in their position as they didn't know how to react to the noises nor where the shots came from. They looked that commander's face and he too was bewildered and frightened to the sound of the gunshots.

"What is this? Who did that?! Show your selves!" the commander shouted.

*BOOM**BOOM**Splat**Splat**Splat*

A shot can be heard and suddenly 2 of the soldiers surrounding the villagers has their chest pierced and another soldier's leg exploded by an unknown object followed by the same sound and again another 3 fell within 3 seconds.

*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**Splatter*

More shots were fired and more soldiers died, falling to the ground with blood over their shoulders and chests. By this time, the soldiers were all screaming and shouting without moving into cover as were quickly dispatched one after another. Within 10 seconds 18 men were dead and 5 injured.

The villagers looked in complete terror as the commander is left with a platoon reduced down to a squad. The commander then out of sheer fright shouted, "Run! There are ghosts in the woods! They are killing us with magic!" as he and his men turned and ran for their lives, leaving behind their horses and weapons. When they reached the road leading out of the village, the commander suddenly sees and oval shaped object tossed at him and catches it in him hands before it lands on his chest. He then looks the small object lined with ribbed bars and spoke sticking out of the edge.

"What is -"

*KTOOOM* *SPLAT**SPLAT**SPLAT*

The object turns out to be a grenade, explodes in his hands and eviscerating his face, while also injuring some of his men behind him with splinter and metal fragments. He falls to the ground motionless with his entire face gone.

Ivan and Zheng jumps out of the bush nearby from opposite sides, and shoots at the soldiers with their smgs.

*BRRRT**BRRT**AHHHH**BRRT**BRRRRRRRT**AHHH*

In a few moments all them went down covered in blood.

"Check for stragglers." Zheng and Ivan searched carefully around the area and before they confirmed there's no one around.

 **The Elf Village**

The villagers stood near the bodies of the slain soldiers, completely overwhelmed by the event that took place less than a minute. The fear of the work of black magic settles into their hearts.

"What was that?...Dark Magic?"

"Those guys are dead aren't they?! What hit them?!"

"Why were the spirits of the forest angry?"

The villagers started asking question while keeping their long elvish ears clasped from the loud sounds of gunshot.

"Look! Something's coming out of the fields!" one villager alerted the others.

Recoiling in fear the villagers ran and huddled behind the houses with only their heads partially exposed, peering at the two shadows emerging from behind the thick lining of ripe barley stalks in the fields.

Two men wearing shades of green colored clothing, with a long wooden-metal like sticks holstered over their shoulders walked into the village. They gestured to wave at the elvish villagers who looked at them with curiosity and fright.

"It alright folks, you don't have to hide now. It's all over."

"We came to help you. Those men are gone now. Come out of there."

The two men spoke elvish fluently thanks to the magic seals given to them by a certain magician. The elves soon realized who they were.

"Drifters….." the elderly elf spoke.

The old elf's son recognizes Josef when he met him days before. Josef notices the young man.

"Oh, hey it's that guy from the road. Nice seeing you again. If we arrived later you would have all been dead." Josef called out to the young elf he met on the road carrying timber to a town on his first day.

"You! Stay away!" the old elf shouted at the men recoiling in fear.

"Like I said, we wanted to help you. We are not going to hurt you I promise."

"No, No! Please go away!" the voice grew louder in the crowd as the villagers started to run back into their houses.

"We didn't want your help! Look what you have done! They are going to come back and kill us all!" the elder elf's voice became more dreaded.

"I'm sure they wouldn't come back. My friends have dealt with all of them."

Just then, the other two arrived at the village from the entrance. Ivan and Zheng were dealing with the soldiers who ran away before arriving at the place. They looked at the villagers who were hiding from their two companions, as they walked closer to the courtyard.

"There more behind us!" one villager noticed both of them entering the village. The others turned to look at them.

"Hey Sepp, we took care of all the run aways. They won't be calling back more of their friends for now!" Ivan reports to the other two across the other end of the village.

"Great! See? There's no need to worry about! We came to check for clues to who these guys are and why were they burning your folks." Josef says as he tries to convince the villagers they are friendly.

"How could we believe you!? You Drifters are the reason we are in the mess! It's all your fault!"

The elder elf shouted back at Josef.

Josef tries to think of more words to say when a small group of people enters the village beside Ivan and Zheng.

"Hey guys!" The magician Freed greets them from behind leading the children back to the village.

Just as Freed got close to the village centre, he saw many dead bodies all died from a form of puncture wounds with large exit cavities from behind. He couldn't think of any sort of spear or arrow doing this or, any sort of cannon portable enough to be carried in a man's arms to deal this kind of damage.

"What on Earth happened here?" Freed asked himself as he wonder what sort of power is this capable of such damage.

"Oh, you are the guy from before. What are you doing here?" Ivan asked as he was surprised to see them come back to the village.

"I figured that we should follow you since it's no safer outside."

The children weary of what may have happened to their parents came back to see them.

"Hey Uncle, we can explain! They drifters actually saved our lives!" one boy shouted.

"Eutsus, Troy, Arnos! My boys, you are alive!" the elder's son looked back at the crowd to see 3 boys making their way through the crowd of villagers.

"Uncle, they helped us. They kill all of those Orte soldiers! That guy over there is telling the truth, without them we wouldn't be alive!" Arnos, the youngest among the three spoke.

"You…." The young man spoke as he turn to face Josef who smiles back at him trying to reassure that they are friendly.

"I don't know what happened in the past with your people and Drifters. But we do know that you needed help so we interfered."

Simo who has been quite for a while spoke up as he analysed the crowd of people hiding from them.

"Drifters…we don't know how to thank you. Especially after you saved our children from execution. But, Thank you." The elder finally gave up his suspicions on the drifters so as the other villagers did too after seeing their heroic deeds.

Josef then grinned before saying "Now that settles all the problems here."

The villagers were grateful to the drifters as the crowd gathered around their saviours.

"Drifters, come. We shall go somewhere to discuss?" the elder elf calls the drifters to go somewhere to talk with him.

The 4 men walked into a large house, possibly the village's gathering hall. They were invited into the house of the elder as they sat down on a large table with the elder.

"So you wanted to ask me about the soldiers and about this place?" Elder offers to answer the drifter attentively knowing what they might ask first.

"I will try my best to answer to clear up what you don't know."

"Thank you, sir" Ivan compliments the old elf.

"Yeah. Before I begin, let's start with the basics. Where exactly are we?"

"You are in the southern territory of the largest empire on this continent, Orte. The population has over 15 million citizens and to feed the large amount of people, they needed large acres of land turned into farms for growing vegetables and rearing animals. The southern territory became the country's land for agriculture and ranching. This village is part of a greater agricultural farmland used to grow barley, a stable food for the people of this world."

"Well then, what about the other territories? Do you know anything about those parts of the country?"

"In the Northern Territory, there lies human towns and villages where the humans who aren't living in the city would live and commute to the Capital City, Verlina to work. The Western territory is where mountain ranges lie and the Dwarves live there. They mainly work in manufacturing weapons for the Empire's army and also mine for ore and minerals. Just abit further north, there are tribes of man beasts or demi humans and they don't really cooperate with the humans much. The Eastern Territory is where the nation's harbor lies and most of the trade happens there. People from all over the world came and go in that place. I used to work as a poster boy back when there wasn't really an Orte Empire."

"That's a good general information of the geography of this country. Anything you know about the outside of the Empire?"

"Hmmm…..I haven't known much about the other countries since I haven't been travelling that much as I used to anymore. I have been sitting here ever since my legs started becoming stiff. Well, I can tell you what I know as said before, and as much as I can."

"There's a few kingdoms that made peace with Orte during the great conquest. They lie up north of the Empire's boarders. Then as I said before, the man beasts in the North Western territory don't like being friends with…, just about anyone but their own kind. They love violence and are very aggressive towards anyone who isn't theirs. So Orte has been trying to expand their territory further west ever since, trying to drive out the man beasts from the forests. Then, there's the kingdom that lies on the sea located on an archipelago 80,000 nautical miles away on the east coast of the Empire. They trade things that aren't found on the main continent, many exotic things. Due to the wealth of the island country, Orte occasionally wanders into their sea territory to go conquer the islands and were often driven out by mounted dragons. They do not like any sort of military presence, especially not from Orte."

"Hmmm, interesting. That helps us a lot."

"You are welcome, Drifters."

Just then, Josef eager to know asks the elder about why the village was being attacked by the Orte's soldiers. He raises his voice into the conversation.

"Wait, I would like to ask. If you are citizens of the Empire, then why the Orte's soldiers did came to attack you? Aren't you supposed to be protected by them?"

The old elf's face suddenly changes from a content smile to an utter frown.

"They hate us. They simply didn't want us to be a part of the country, but they wouldn't let us leave and treats us like slaves. It's not just us, every other nonhuman creatures were being enslaved to work till death or outright slaughtered. I don't understand either, I have never seen such humans in my entire life. They think themselves to be superior, it is like a cult or something. It's insane. How could they do this to us? They took away everything from us and left only enough food to survive the winter and tools to work in the fields. And when they don't get what they expect, they would round us up….every year to kill anyone suspected to the most ludicrous crimes they know of in the book and set them on fire in front of the townsfolk to watch. They took away our women to a prison where they were kept as hostages, to keep us from rebelling them. All of the elfs' villages had their wives and daughters and sisters taken away by the soldiers. They've never allowed a single one from returning to the villages. How could our race as a whole survive if we don't have any female members of our villages? After all the things we have done for them now they outright came to kill us all just because we didn't have enough produce to pay for our taxes. Why can't we be left alone? Why can't we live in peace?"

The more Josef hears this, the more he remembers about his time on the Eastern Front. It was during the wake of Operation Barbarossa he was at a village that recently came under the control of the Wehrmacht. The smell of pungent flesh and blood. The sights of mass killings of families and huge ditches dug up to bury them. The dead stares of the lifeless people as they were dropped into the pit and buried inch by until their limbs were covered with dirt. The shape of the bullets' bore in the flesh and the large gashes in their belly made from bayonet slashes and stabs, he could see them very clearly. A child being dragged by the hair into a shed and burnt alive together with the rest. The burnt out barns were filled with charred corpses once belonging to people who died being torches to death by flamethrowers with the numerous scratch marks on the partially burnt wood pieces and hands shriveled up showing that they suffered a from the immense burning before they died.

All those memories he wanted to leave behind, all those things that he didn't want to hear nor see again. Now they resurface as those memories of his previous life haunts him.

"This can't be happening. How come? These ideas are world's apart. There's no way. It has to be coincidence. No,no…nonono. It can't be the same."

The other drifters notice how uncomfortable Josef was after hearing those details from the elderly elf. Ivan interrupts into the conversation calmly hinting in his words to stop talking about the subject.

"Alright, that's enough. It's best we don't get too hasty now. I think we should move over to assess the condition of the village. Would you the okay if we leave soon?"

"No, more soldiers may come after us after you leave. But we won't tell them you helped us. We'll make sure that this remains secret among the village. Now please leave. All for the sake of yourselves and our lives." The elderly elf convinces the drifters that they would be safe if they leave them.

"They will suffer because of you, Drifters. You'll see what unnecessary heroism could cost you."

The voice came from near the entrance to the main dining hall of the Elder's home. It was the Octobrist, Freed as he leaned on the wall next to the door before walking up to the table which they were sitting. Ivan look at the young man's disheveled face and made him rather intrigued of the boy.

"What's your name?"

"It's Freed, my friends call me "Cloud Man". I'm a magician belonging to the guild, Octobrists. Our duty is to observe people from the other world, like you and report to the Head Magician of our guild. Our goal is to prevent the end of the world when the times comes for the Ends to rise and destroy all of humanity. And that day is coming very close in a few days' time."

"That is a one hell of an introduction. So what makes you want to observe us? Are we anyhow dangerous to these people we've just saved?"

"No, it's not just about the elves. It's everyone, drifters could bring ideas and changes that would be otherwise destructive to this world and could brew out more problems than solve humanity's peace. You are all a liability."

"How come we are a liability? We just as much want to get to our own world but we can't since we have technically died and came back to life for some reason. So if there's any changes to make or reason for us to be here, we would want to protect these folks. I don't know about the rest but I've decided on that."

"I'm with him. I can't let this go after seeing what has happened here." Zheng announces himself.

"You could count me in too. I don't know exactly what's going on back in Finland but I know that at least there's hundred thousand more men like me defending it."

"Simo, your country's fine. They made a truce with the Soviets and joined forces to fight against the Germans." Josef informs Simo about what happened to his home country after he died in a hospital from the explosive wound.

"I'm with him. I can't let go of what happened here for something so familiar with me. I had seen this before and I won't let that happen again. This time I'll do what I didn't in the past. I must protect people like the elves here no matter what race they are."

Josef then raises his head to look at the elves who started crowding into the room to see their saviors off. They smile at the drifters.

Josef and the rest of the group smiles back at them and waves at them knowing how grateful these villager are with their lives.

After hearing each of the Drifters declare their purpose of being in the world. Freed wonders what their end goals are and whether they may be better off without being under the Octobrists' watch. He has never heard of Drifters openly declaring themselves of protecting civilians and he would have to reassess their objectives and report to the Head Magician.

"I see. So that is your resolve Drifters. Excuse me, I need to go talk to my boss. I'll see you outside to talk a little more." Freed said as he walks out of the room.

"Thank you Drifters. If there's more people like out there helping those in need the world would be a better place. I'm sure."

The Elder sends his acknowledgement. Hoping that one day more drifters like them would appear in their world.

"I guess it's time for us to leave. Thank you for inviting us to talk with you, sir." Ivan said as they group stands up, holstering their rifles and bags as they prepare.

The villagers made way for them to leave and wishes them well on their journey.

The Drifters walks out of the house and into the open path outside the Elder's home.

The Elves followed them outside and waved their farewells as Josef's group made their way to the village's exit.

"Take Care! May your journey be blessed!"

"Please do comeback some other time!"

"May the gods be with you wherever you go!"

The drifters looks ahead peering at the dusk that was about to set in after a long day. Josef realizes how long they have been walking all morning to reach the village and the see the source of the smoke pillar. They see the magician waiting for them outside the village on a nearby path ready to talk to them again.

 **A Few Minutes Earlier, Outside the Village**

Freed walks out of the village and stands near a few trees as he took out a crystal ball from his backpack. He gently applies his fingertips on the surface of the crystal ball and the crystal resonates to the touch giving off a bright blue glow. Then an image appears on the surface that appears to be moving. The image shows a man in his early 30s with a white suit jacket and matching gloves of the same color and a purple tie with an imprint of an eye near the broad end of the piece.

"Freed are you there? How's the situation resolved? Is everything alright?" the Grandmaster asks as Freed organizes everything he has to say.

"Affirmative, all is well sir. They killed all of the Orte's soldiers and now they are also preparing to leave. I plan on talking with them once they reach outside of the gate."

"Ehmmmm…., this is going to cause quite abit of trouble between us and the Empire. But I'll handle all the brunt of explaining, for now just pretend that you don't know anything about this. Do you copy?"

"Copy that. Also, may I request for a favor?"

"Alright, I'm hearing your request. What is it?"

"Can I accompany the drifters without hiding around? I would like to know more about them and I would also like to be assigned with them for quite a while. Is that alright, sir?"

"Affirmative, Freed. It's fine, as long as they do not threaten you. I'll make details of the assignment for the new arrangements to extend your deployment time to at least 1 year with the drifter group during which you would not be called for observations of other drifters."

"Thank you sir. Much appreciated. Over and out."

Image on the crystal ball fades and the crystal ball stopped glowing. Freed then places his crystal ball into his bag and sat down to wait for the drifters to show up outside the village.

Sooner than expected, they walked out of the village and he stands up to go meet them.

"Hey drifters, over here. I'll need to talk with you."

"Mr. Fancy pants still got more to tell huh?" Ivan says in a slightly annoyed tone as he walks toward Freed who's waiting alongside the path.

"Go on, we'll hear you but we won't wait for long. The sun's going down." Ivan tells the magician to say whatever business he has for them.

"I have contacted my boss and he gave me orders to follow you. I'll be assigned with you for an indefinite amount of time. So from now on, I'll be tagging along with your group."

"I'm not sure about you "tagging" along with us. We surely don't want you to be liability yourself to the squad as much as how you referred to us as a liability. You would drag us down, and do you even know how to fight? I saw how you got mauled over by those Orte soldiers without much of a struggle. I totally doubt you could reliable when we run into trouble."

"I can take care of myself. I'm an expert in cloaking magic and I know various area effect type magic defensive weapons that can provide additional value of defense aside from my usual stone wall barrier. But I rarely ever use it since I could only try one wall at a time. I also major in alchemy and know how to make various medicines from scratch."

"Then while you are with us, you would work as our medic and support us in any way you could. And what's that glass sticking out of your back?"

Ivan notices a glass shiny ball sticking out of Freed bag, noticing it's glow.

"It's my mean of communication with my boss."

"Can you try contacting other of such similar devices with this?"

"Yeah, I can. It's a universal range communication device. It could find any of such similar devices in the world at contact them no matter where or what situation it is."

"Then, you are additionally our radioman. So you better responsibility for all your assigned roles."

'Who the hell is he to tell what my job is?' Freed mumbles to himself.

"I know what you're thinking. But we need as much help as we can to survive."

"Just a sec, Ivan. I need to talk with him._Hey, do you know the way to the Fortress? Any shortcut to take?"

Josef pulls out the map given by Olminu several days back. Freed notices a familiar purple mark on the map that seems to be glowing on the map.

"So this purple spot is where we are right?"

"Yes."

"Well, let me see. Hmmm…."

As Freed hold the map open he analyses all the possible route from his experience of travelling along various roads, he recognizes the castle at which they were heading to.

"Yup, I know a good shortcut to take. I can take you there to one of our strongholds over a day." Freed replies.

"There's a route that's not shown on this map since it's a recently discovered path thought to have been made after a stampede of Murlocks."

"Murlocks?" Josef asks as he had never heard of such animals in his own world.

"It's a species of giant amphibians well known for the oil they produce. It's used for making fuel for oil lamps and lasts quite longer than most contemporary fuels."

"I see. So what made you think they caused a stampede?"

"They were probably following the water source near the edge of the forest, a large lake."

"You think we could use it replenish our water supply? If it isn't contaminated."

"Yes you could, but I don't think you should try though. The Murlocks are highly territorial. The Murlock breeders from our towns often risk getting slashed and mauled when they tried capturing one."

"Well, we have gun so we could give that a try. Scare them off if necessary." Simo gives reassurance.

"Anyways, we have to find a place to camp out, it's getting really dark and soon who know what's going to jump out of the woods."

Zheng reminds all of his comrades about their previous encounters and everyone know what they have to do.

"Hey Ivan, we shouldn't forget about our weapons stash too okay? After we find the place that Josef has been talking about, we need to go back and search the rest of the train for more supplies, especially the train cars locked with heavy duty steel lock pads. Might find some powerful tools when we reach the fortress."

"Alright, I understand. We go to the fortress and come back with tool to grab all our ammunition stash and guns."

"Excuse me, did you mention locks? If you want to open them then I could help you out, I know a spell from my grimoire that could open locked doors and spaces. I could try."

"Nice, then we won't need to find any tools or locksmith to open them."

"Well shall we start heading out now? Things aren't going to get better soon." Simo calls out on the other to resume their trip.

"Everyone check your guns and ammo supply."

Everyone from Josef's group took out their rifles and check the gun chambers and magazines, along with going through their ammo pouches.

Josef notices that he's running out of ammunition for his rifle and he's down to about 36 rounds of 7.98mm Mauser but he still sort of have plenty left for his smg, around 250 rounds including the magazine.

"Uhh, I'm okay here, plenty ammo but my rifle may only last 2 more firefights. But still enough if you want to consider hunting down animals."

"I've got enough ammo here too, to last 5 more."

"Got 60 rounds of AP ammo and 30 rounds of incendiary. 280 round for my ppsh."

"I have 105 rounds of rifle ammo and 300 for my machine pistol."

"Can you give me some of your rifle ammo, Zheng?"

"Fine by me comrade. Is this enough?"

"30 rounds is good."

Freed listens closely to the men discuss over their ammunition supply and wonder how much they have to talk over preparing for fights.

"Why do you all make things so trivial? And what's with 'ammunition'? Do you really need it to use your weapons?"

"Yes we do, or they'll simple become nothing more than pikes and clubs. Which would wear down the quality of the gun although the bayonet is fine. The ammunition allows the rifle to shoot projectile just the same as your typical bows and arrows. It needs bullets just like bows needs arrows to shoot. The reason we are counting here is because ammunition is scare and it's not manufactured on this planet we are in and we need to scavenge to find ammunition"

Simo tells an intrigued Freed about why they all check ammo.

"Either ways all of us here are experienced with scarcity of ammo and we know how to save up for real firefights. Or perhaps you have some kind of magic trick to spawn more ammunition, do you?""

"No, of course not! I was just wondering why your weapon needs ammunition to kill. They look more like clubs to me. I had no idea how you killed those soldiers."

"Alright, listen. I'll teach you the basics of the 20th century warfare. Come over here."

Josef pulls Freed close to him and ushers his hands close to his rifle.

"H-Hey! What are you doing!"

"I'm just showing you the loops and hoops about shooting a rifle."

"But still I don't care! I just want to know how you killed those soldiers!"

"That's exactly why I'm going to show you how we do it. So it doesn't matter, all's in the past. Now listen carefully…."

Josef moves his shoulders across Freed and places the rifle into his hands before moving him to a clearing on the side of the road facing a piece of dead tree stump.

"Hey guys, can you put a tin can or something on that dead tree trunk over there?"

Ivan pulls out a piece of used spam ration can and places it on top of the dead trunk.

Josef raises Freed's hand to a horizontal position and his right hand onto the narrow neck of the gun stock, nudging his fingers forward close to the trigger guard. At the same time, he places his left hand over the fore guard of the stock while positioning his head to position his cheek over the cheek rest on the stock, training his eyes over the edge the scope.

Freed just gives up and follows his lead.

"Now look closely son. Do you see the semi-cross over the glass piece? It's called a reticle and you use it to aim at the enemy combatant. You place the sharp tip of the middle pointer over the target you wish to kill which in this case is that piece of metallic can on the tree stump and keep your eyes close to the target, if you see it move your follow it while keeping your finger off the trigger which is this piece of thing curved shaped part underneath the stock."

"Do you see your target?"

"Yes I see the can, what's next?"

"You must guess the distance between you and the target. In this case, it's about a 80 yards so you don't need to adjust the sights. So you just aim the sharp edge of the middle arrow over the tin can."

"Then?"

"Then, you place your right index finger over the trigger as I said before is that piece of curved metal below your hand and you pull that. And remember to pull it, not squeeze."

Freed places his index finger on the trigger as told by Josef and he pulls it.

*BANG*

The bullet travels at speed not visible to naked eyes while making a sound that cuts through the air. It makes contact with the ration can, and caves the tin inside before exiting from the back making a crunching sound. As soon as it leaves the backside blooms out like a flower which has been twisted. The can flips over and falls to the ground with a soft thud.

*CLUNK*

"Direct hit! Nice try for a first timer."

"Amazing… the thing just fell over and stock just recoils back with little effect. And that loud thundering crack like sound."

"You see now? That's the power of a rifle. Clean and simple. Just aim first and pull the trigger when you have clear picture of the target. Now last step, put your right hand on the lever handle to your right, you call it a bolt. Now pull it up."

Freed places his right hand over a stud like rod with an L curve and he yank it upwards.

*KLINK*

"Now pull it back."

*CLINK*

A spent cartridge come out of the opened chamber made from the pull and another similar piece of cartridge with the bullet could be seen below in the magazine well.

"Push the bolt back in."

*KTUNK*

The sound the bolt being cocked and the cartridge being placed into the chamber could be heard as it is ready to fire again.

"After that, you could fire it again and if you want to check how many round you have left you pull the bolt halfway through and peer into the magazine well, which stores the bullets."

"What if there's no more bullets inside?" Freed asks.

"Then you take out rounds, like this one."

Josef unhinges a bullet from one of the stripper clips in his ammo pouch and shows it to Freed.

"This is the ammo, you will open the chamber and push this bullet into the magazine feed below one round at a time. I'll show you."

Josef takes the rifle close to his own hand. He opens the action of his rifle and catches the ejected bullet in his right hand. Then he places both bullets in a diagonal position on his palm with the tip of the bullet facing the chamber and he pushes each of the round into the magazine latch one at a time.

*KLUNK**KLUNK*

"And there, the rifle is ready to fire again. That's the basics. Remember to take account to the range and compensate for the drop."

"Drop?"

"No bullet could travel at an infinite range. The bullet would drop at some point when it reaches the maximum range. For this one, it's about 1,500 meters maximum. And if you plan on shooting beyond 200 meters, you would need to take account for the windage[1]. Or else you won't hit your intended target."

"Okay I see but isn't this rifle hard to aim when you are "telescoping" into an object, you can't see what's going on around you."

"That is why you must learn self-awareness, when you can't use your eye, you must hear and feel the slightest of vibration close to ground. Also you can use the iron sights which is much easier to use but even so you would still need to find your range on the gun. The default range set for a rifle is around 100-200 meters. See here."

Josef place the rifle back to his shoulders again and tell him to look at the opening below the scope to find the iron sights and see a pair of hinges and a needle pointing vertically against a hood.

"I see it, you use the needle inside the hood to aim right?"

"Very good, you are starting to see the common sense here. Now you can use the hinges to adjust the range. Now let's look over this side."

Josef tilts the rifle up to show the top of the foreguard of the wooden stock and barrel. To points to the broad strip of metal with a hinged edge marked with single digit numbers and the small cylindrical piece attached near the end.

"Now you can hold onto the sides of the cylinder, and slide it across the metal piece and place over the numbered edges to put a range on the rifle until it snaps into that desired range. Each number indicates a specified range where each number is scaled to a hundred for each mark."

"You use it to zero in[1] on your targets. It's all about guess work. So there you have it. Next time we go a search for Ivan and his weapon stash, you'll get your own rifle."

"Uhhh, Don't know what to say but Thank you, mr….."

"Just call me Sepp."

"Okay, Sepp. I acknowledge."

"Are you done with your lecture Mr. Expert? It's late already. Might as well camp out around here before we move on. Besides I could have taught him lot easier than your over exaggerated techniques."

"Hey, I'm just teaching him everything he need to know. He might come in handy later on once we find a rifle for him. And also, that's quality training my friend, quality above everything. That what makes them more effective soldiers. German quality training."

Ivan asks and Josef notices that it's already close to nighttime and they need to find a place to camp out ASAP.

"Hmph, quality my ass. If anyone learn that much just to shoot a simple weapon, then nobody can shoot effectively without thinking of the random crap. You aim, the rifle shoots and it just hits, that's all there is to know for starters."

"It makes them more accurate, you know that one misplaced shot would cost your life?"

"When you are fighting in close ranges, can you apply the same thing? You'll be dead by then, just like you said…one misplaced shot, or rather I call it one overestimated shot. Better off just to flash point and pull the trigger."

"Well, that may be true but in the world we are in, ammunition is scarce. There's a great deal to think about accuracy before you think of unloading a magazine."

"We've got plenty as I told you about the train wreck and our secret stash we hid away near the forest."

"What if that runs out?"

"I told you! There's plenty, you know much bigger are the production output of the Soviet munitions manufacturing compared to yours fascist state? It's a thousand time much larger. So there's obviously loads more in ammo and guns on that train and from what we salvaged from the missing soldiers in that train."

"Still that can't be considered infinite. God knows what's out there, we don't know what foes we may face and we need that ammo used sparingly."

"Alright that's enough! It's getting dark now and if we just continue to argue who trains better, then we might as well screw with training and learn better about surviving in some foreign woods. We need to find shelter now. Let's move."

"Fine. We'll put this aside for now."

"True that. Might as well go find food to eat. You have any rations left?"

"No, but I still do have some smoked meat from a deer I killed a few days ago."

"Well, that's fine. We'll have it once we find a place to setup a camp."

Looking ahead to the path leading towards a road. Freed thinks that this is going be a long night since they have yet to found a place to camp. He think about the sleepless night and days of his deployment and definitely would like to get a long rest.

"Oh well, I can at least use magic to start fires without much of a hassle." He tell himself.

"Oh wait, you said you can start fires without help? Well, sorry but I'm going to show you how to do it the old fashioned way. It's reliable when you get used to it."

Josef overheard what he was saying and decided to show him how to make fires on his own.

"No! Why should I do that?! I'm a magician for a reason, you know, I can take care of it myself!"

"Nope, you've got know our way of thinking or else you aren't part of the team."

"Damn this work! Uhhhgh!"

With a grimace on his face he thought to himself,

'Well, this is just a long tiring day. At least I could learn a thing or two from these drifters. Think that's why I decided to stick close to them.'

 **In Another Part of the Forest, close to the edge**

A large crystal clear lake could be seen surrounded by a few tree lines and beneath it there are several green looking creatures with frog like bodies with thick bulging eyes and red fins sticking out of their limbs. These are the Murlocs. One of them could be seen interacting with another amphibious species with long grey legs serrated with long sharp spines and a crab like torso. The Murlocs and the long legged Crabs feeds off the local wildlife in the lake and they sometimes even fight over for the food. And so, one of these Murlocs were fighting with a crab like creature which also hunts for anything that come into its range with the claws snapping right at the Murloc. Both creature were calling for their companions to join in the fight over a few caught fishes when they notice a bright light appearing on the outer edge of the lake and close to the forest.

A Door could be seen opening up and from inside a man stumbles out of the door facing to the lake. He is dressed in a WW2 military uniform with a western allies design to it, particularly American made and a large print on his shirt reads "UMSC" with his uniform badge representing a number "28" overlapping a yellow "V" with a indigo colored arrow pointing upwards and below a print line that reads, "UNCOMMON VALOR".

The man is lugging a large machine gun with belts of ammunition strapped around him, which must weigh at least half a ton. His has a rather high muscular build for an average Caucasian and a tall stature. He face looks worn out and bloody no to mention the black soot covering nearly a half of his face and wears an M1 tinpot helmet with a camo perfect for a war in the Pacific. He walks out of the door and towards the oncoming band of intrigued Murlocs and long legged crabs. He is in complete state of shock as he wanders around with his head still bleeding.

"Where the hell was I? That guy in the white room, some clerk or someone, just…how did I get here?"

"Is this U.S? Am I back home? Is this reality or just a dream?"

*GWAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKK*

He hears the low toned screeching noise and turns around to see a bunch of frog and daddy long legs like creatures that seemingly came out of a Lovecraftian novel[2]. They look aggressive and seems to be ready to pounce on him at anytime.

"Who the fuck are you guys?"

*KRREEEERRRERERRRT*

The Murlocs jumped straight towards him a second after he said that. However for them, the Marine had quick reflexes and he hurled his machine gun towards then and sprayed a series of high horizontal arcs and continuously kept firing at the general direction of the creatures until they became nothing more than a pile of scattered blown up body parts and mounds of flesh. A few seconds later there's no more creatures to kill.

"Yeah, you better stay dead puppies. Uhhhhh_"

He fell unconscious from the amount of blood spilling from his head. As he lay there for a few minutes, another passerby came along to examine the carnage created, he was just was perplexed as anyone would be after seeing the man took out all the animals that were attacking him in no less than 5 seconds. He walks up to him to see closer.

"What the hell? This guy seems American alright but what with that insane gun?"

The unknown man looks over to the machine gun and examines it.

"Hell, that must be a modified Browning M1919 AN/M2[1] with some stock rifle butt and BAR[1] sights. How did they both get here?"

The man notices the American who's bleeding out form his head.

"Hang on….let me fix ya."

The man took out a trauma kit from his side pocket that reads, _"Property of the U.S Army 1965"_

He tore open the plastic sheet and took out 4 rolls of bandages, 5 quick clots and dressing kit along with a tourniquet, 3 morphines and an adrenaline shot.

"Let's have a look…"

The man turns the unconscious marine's head and examines his wound. He sees a bullet entry hole but the bullet seems to be stuck in his skull.

"Damn, you are one lucky guy. I'll try to take it out of your once the bleeding stops."

The man covers his head with a roll of bandage and used a pair of medical grade scissors and safety pin to tie up the bandage over his head.

"Hmm, his dogtags…."

The unidentified man leans over to the metallic tabs hanging from his neck and holds out one of them to read.

 _"Cpl. Tory Stein, Dayton Ohio, Enlisted 9/22/1942"_

He then notices the badge on his shirt. It's clearly the Badge that belongs to the 28th Marines Regiment.

"Cpl. Tory Stein huh…..wait a minute. Is he supposed to be dead?! What's is the meaning of this?! This isn't possible! Who hell was that guy in the white room?!"

The two men was left to themselves as the night grew darker and darker. One god somewhere know what they are expecting next. Low pitched sneers and all kinds of unusual noises could be heard.

*SRRRRRRRREWWWWW**GROOOOMMMMM**MHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

 **To be continued**

 **References**

[1] ## Military Jargons And Weapons ##

Windage – The air resistance of a moving object, a bullet for example. Sniper often calculate the speed and the direction of the wind to calibrate their sights onto target. Often know as the side to side adjustment of the sights.

Zeroing in – The adjustments of the sight of a gun through changing the 'Elevation' or the range at which a gun could be set to fire at an accurate distance. This allows the sights to be on level with the target.

Browning M1919 AN/M2 – The standard .30 Anti-Aircraft gun used by the Air Force and Naval Air Force. It's based on the famous Browning M1919 air-cooled .30 machinegun with its most famous variant being the M1919 A4 saw widespread use during the Normandy Campaign and the Pacific Campaign by all branches of the U.S military. This particular gun mentioned in the chapter is a specifically modified unofficial version by the U.S Marine Corps, popularly known as "The Stinger". This weapon modification came to be during the Battle of Peleliu when the USMC needed a Squad support weapon that fires faster than a BAR and more portable than a regular M1919 A4. It was first devised by an USMC private by the name Willian H. Colby who added a bipod to the gun's muzzle although it remains with a pair of spades for handle, it performed well in jungle warfare. A Few months later, two Paramarines, Sergeant Mel J. Grevich and Lt. Phillip Gray of Jewell had thought of modifying their own stingers and so their added a M1 Garand stock, a BAR's sights and BAR's bipod and the gun. However this version didn't see combat until a year later in the Invasion of Iwo Jima by the same people who created it. By then, there were 6 stingers crafted before the start of the invasion. One of them was given to Cpl. Tony Stein who was with the 28th Marines Regiment. The gun was famous for throwing off the user's grip often and also overheating very quickly, addition of the high ammo consumption of an average of 600 Rpm. But it was a very well performing as an assault weapon and the bullets it fires resemble 'fireflys' by witnesses. Sadly, none of the guns survived the War though there was a replica which was constructed in the 2000s in the U.S.

[2] ## Historic People ##

H.P Lovecraft – An author a highly popular horror novel series featuring short stories of the strage and the unknown. It contains all sorts of bizarre places and creatures. He was most famous for authoring the book "The Call of Cthulhu".

Cpl. Tony Stein – Born in Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A on September 30th 1921 to a family of Austrian-Jewish immigrants. Cpl. Tony Stein studied at the Kiser High school in Dayton and worked part time as a tool maker during his free time. After graduating from High School, he enlisted in the U.S Marine Corps in 1942. He had the chance to join the elite Paramarines after his recruit training due to an exceptional soldiering performance during training. He took part in the Vella Lavella and Bougainville Campaigns as part of the 3rd Parachute Battalion, 1st Parachute Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He was credited with shooting 5 snipers in a single day during Bougainville Campaign. During this time he and a few other members of the 1st Parachute Regiment began to modify several Browning M1919 AN/M2 from downed U.S bombers found plenty near the Guadalcanal. They reassembled the guns extensively to turn them into squad support weapons specifically for assault, they were called "The Stingers". After the Paramarines disbanded he returned to Camp Pendleton, California where was promote to corporal and assigned as an assistant squad leader to Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Marines in the newly formed the 5th Marine Division. On February 19, 1945, he took part in the amphibious landings which began the Battle of Iwo Jima. He took his own modified M1919 "The Stinger" and charged onto the beach as part of the 1st wave on Green Beach 1 at the base of Mount Suribachi and used his modified machine gun to provide covering fire for his fellow Marines as they moved into position on the beachhead. He took the risk by exposing himself to enemy machinegun fire and forced the enemy to reveal their location. He located the firing positions and took out several pillboxes killing at least 20 Imperial soldiers. Due to the nature of the gun itself, he had to run back to the rear echelon to resupply himself. During each trip beck, he brought a wounded man to be treated by the field doctors. Cpl. Tony's action were regarded as exceptional act of bravery on that day. He was wounded once during the Battle and he had to be brought back to the ship to be treated but when he heard the men from his Regiment reaching the strongly defended Hill 362A, where they took heavy casualties, he got off the ship hospital and returned to his unit to support his dying comrades. On March 1, while he was giving covering fire whilst his squad locate the hidden pillboxes which had a fellow Company pinned down, a sniper took a shot at him in the head, ending his life. He was post-humously awarded the Medal of Honor by then President of the United Sates, Harry S. Truman. He's buried with full military honor at his hometown Dayton in Cavalry Cemetery.


	5. Ch5: The Dead of the Night

**Legend**

"Sample Text" – Normal conversation

'Sample Text' – Character thoughts

*Sample Text* - Sound effects

(Sample Text) – Linguistic Translation

-∞- - At same time

[x] – Notice

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Dead of the Night**

* * *

After discovering the source of the smoke at the village and saving the villagers from the Orte Empire's Purge. Josef Allerberger and his group of drifters were accompanied by a magician from The Octobrists, whose name is Freed know by his friends as the master of cloaking and area effect magic, which may include temporary manipulations of the sound space and creating area wide visual distortions or even the spell to show all animals and feral beasts in the area of the magic cast. He was soon acquainted with the Drifters more than he had expected and even taught how to shoot guns. He hopes that whatever these men were, they must be good people, or so he believes. He still have an ounce of doubt about whether they could be trusted or not since their act of heroism back at the village. Now stuck in a job that he wishes he didn't take, he's about to see a lot more on this night. Will his long deserved good sleep ever come true? The Unofficial story of the Drifters continues.

 **At the Edge of the Forest, on Freed's detour trail**

In the silent of night, barely anything is visible unless for the bright moonlight that shines above the sky, a clear sky. There in the edge of the woods lies a camp overlooking a cliff. A small yet alluringly bright light could be seen in the middle of a group of makeshift triangular tents made out of pieces of leaves and branches and draped with cloth. A group of men sit in middle facing the fire talking about their old days back in their armies and kid who just looks on at the men making their inappropriate jokes every now and then as he shuffles his tarot cards. The boy looks up at the moon and thought to himself.

'We've better hurry. Need to regroup before the full moon rises. Or else the End's army would easily take out all of us if we are scattered.'

"Hey, Freed. What are doing moping at the sky over there? Stop looking like you are going to shit on someone, if you think you are going die tomorrow, you never make memories. Live the moment my man and besides, you made this fire yourself so why wouldn't let yourself relax over your accomplishment. You've just learned how to make a proper fire without all the cheesy 'Tricks'. You come where and talk with us you could learn a thing or two. "

'Uggggghg, yeah about that whole "make your own fire" moment'

Freed could still feel the aches over his palms from the repetitive smashing of rock and metal in an awkward manner and how rock hit his head by accident when it accidentally slipped his grip and bounced back at him.

 **20 minutes earlier, while tents were being setup**

"Come on, you can do this. Just make sure you get enough grip on the flint!"

Simo instructs Freed as he continues to struggle clapping a piece of black opaque rock together with a piece of carbon steel trying to get the sparks over the crumpled leaves and twigs.

"Just slide the blade over the rock. Just keep pulling straight down the surface. You've nearly got it."

The small shimmers of sparks from the rock started showing as Freed tries harder to get the rocks of throw sparks right at the fireplace.

"You are almost there…almost_"

Without warning the rock slipped off his hands and slammed down so hard that the rock came back to him, right in his head.

"Ouffffff! OwwwwWWwwww! Shit!"

Freed let out a muffled sound of pain and frustration as he covers his nose and forehead.

"AHHHhhHHhaaahahaah! Wow, that is what I call butter hands. No matter how you swing it all comes right back at you, either the butter or a damn rock!"

Ivan laughs at the silly accident.

"Not to jest. But need to concentrate here. Uhhggggh, I'll do it again."

"Alright well, start over." Simo tells Freed to do it again.

"Okay….I can do it again. Just have to make the sparks flow through the rocks. Like hand washing."

Freed tries again trying to get the metal to produce just abit more sparks, abit more….

*KLACK**KILCH**KLICH**KLACK**KLUT*CRACK**CRACK*CRACK**CLUTTER**CLUTTER**CRACKLE**CRACKLE*

After numerous smashing and sliding of flint against the piece of steel, the sparks were flying far enough, strong enough to reach the tinder made of leaves, twigs and wood fungus. This alights the leaves which the fire trickles over to the twigs, before going down to the logs.

"Well done! You did it Freed! Good job!"

"From now on change your name to 'Master of stone clappers' Haha!"

"You know what? Let's change his boring nickname to 'Slicks'!"

"Why?"

"Because he does the moving action of the rocks like a real slick bastard!"

"I sure would love to have a good slick to oil up my guns."

"What? HAHAHaaahhaha"

Freed looks at the other four and just feels like throwing up and argument to defend himself but his joints are failing and he really, really needed a rest after all the action of slapping rocks and metal.

"Whatever, call me what you like but I'm going take a rest over there."

Said Freed as he moves over to a large boulder to sit on.

"Take care! We'll need you at full strength tomorrow for a long march."

"You even call that a march? We aren't going to war here. We up against a bunch of fools on the same level to thinking as Zulus. And bunch of animals, just critter you know. They'll run away once one of their fellows go down."

"True. Back in my time on the Ost Front we had to watch out for artillery and scouts. I had to chase after them to stop them from harassing our advance. Then there's the landmines and tripwires, I once almost stepped over one while chasing the enemy sniper."

"Well, good thing my men stopped you dead. Otherwise, we'll have been toast after some serious counterattacks. If I ever saw a single fascist flag flying over the Kremlin, I would have shot myself than to die like a dog at the hand of the Nazis."

"That's what they always say. Shoot first only to be seen or get shot like a miserable piece of meat."

"See?! And that's why we always call airstrikes and artillery on you. So that people don't need to become meaty fodders. What are you going to do when the whole place piles us with the dead? The command wouldn't let us have more fresh recruits if so many kept dying."

"Shut up!...You know what we should do? We should have done this man to man, no dirty tricks but hey, I guess you could say the ones with the most dirty tricks always win."

"Isn't that what snipers are? We always shoot to kill while remaining undetected. No reason to expose our heads."

"Unless, you try luring them out with makeshift dummy heads."

"You think we'll fall for that? You are why the old oracle tells us that, when you drink up enough vodka you start to distinguish between what is real and fake. We drink loads of vodka because of that. We see things no naked eye would."

"Only to screw up your aim and get yourself killed. Yeah. Quality German beer above all."

"Beer is cowpiss. You drink the most ridiculous stuff. You should just try some vodka and see how you'll like it."

"Well if I drink so much vodka, then the soviets would notice that and all they would have to do is to poison my supply and I'll die getting poisoned to death."

"You would be like, stoned to death."

"Listen, if any caveman come up to throw rocks at me. I'll shoot them even without looking at them."

"How would you kill when you can't aim?"

"I got a 'third eye' watching my back. That's what!"

"Were you reading so much of that sci-fi bull crap like about how a bunch of green guys with snail like bodies come to kill us all?"

"No, but I could bet I can shoot them all before they descend from their scrap metal cans."

"Then, what with that lecture about 'bullet drop' earlier? I smell a lot of crap coming from you."

"Well, if you shoot into space they say, the object would travel forever in the same direction without losing speed. So yeah, if only I had a gun with enough charge to launch that bullet, I could."

"What do you mean enough charge? Do you even know how much charge does it take for our artillery piece to shoot over 15 km away? Try that and your ears would pop. All those artillery men are heading straight for a life where you can't hear music nor people talking after the war ends."

 **To The Present Time**

Joseph calls Freed to join them near the campfire.

Simo Häyhä notices a bunch of cards in his hands.

"Can you play cards with those? I would love to get have a little fun since those two are really tiring me out with their rantings."

"Well, these cards are made to tell fortune but it is often very random and they often correlate to situations that would never add up to the future it tells. By the ways, these are genuine tarot cards blessed by the Grandmaster himself."

"Seriously!? Freed get them over here. Help us tell our future man. I can't wait!"

Zheng exclaims.

"Can you shut up?! You can't tell someone's future just because to believe in a future! How are you even alive till now? Believing in all that bull crap about luck and omens! I mean who cares?! You live because you try not to die or do stupid thing that gets you killed! You fight for your life! If are breathing right now and your heart still beats, than that means you are still alive!"

Ivan reprimands Zheng over his pointless excitement.

Simo, not willing to turn down Freed's help, tells him to play it.

"Kid, come here and play it, you don't need to listen to what he's saying. I still want to try it out."

Feeling reassured, he walks towards a makeshift wooden bench near the fire to play his tarot cards.

"Alright, when do we start?"

"Can you give me a moment to setup?"

"Sure"

Freed compiles all the cards together.

"Now ask yourself a wish. Think about the questions in life you want to ask."

"Okay, I'm done. Now what?"

"Take the deck and shuffle the cards. And when I ask you to cut the card, then please do so."

"Okay. Well I'll start shuffling then."

Simo shuffles the cards around pulling one deck and overlapping it with another and then pulling them by stretching out the edges to flip over one another.

"Alright, cut!"

Freed tell Simo to cut the cards. That said, he took an upper portion out and lay it flat on the ground.

"Alright, now spread the cards face down."

Simo places all the cards on the ground facing downwards. And spreads them out evenly.

"Now try thinking again. What do you ask for? About everything you want to know."

Simo thinks through about all the time he's been away from home, about the Winter War and how he has managed to survive every time the artillery hits close to him. How close he had come to being caught by the Soviet scouts until the one really did shot him in the face. He thinks about his family back home and how the rest of his 7 siblings are going on about with life. Are they still living in that village?

"You can pull out 5 separate cards from the deck." Freed tells him.

Simo pulls out his first card, he lay it flat over the side and turns it over.

It shows an old man with a long beard, The Hermit.

He pulls out another card, this time showing a person with a jester hat, The Fool.

"Hmmm, that's weird. So…..this tell you that you are person who's lost in his own doubt, you have been trying to find answers to the same question over and over again, yet it would only lead you further into doubt. Well pick the next card please."

Simo pulls out his third card, this reveals a person clad in black with a hang noose to his side. The Hangman.

"You are being placed in a very intense situation where a grave mistake is to take over soon if you don't hurry."

He pulls out his fourth card, which shows the devil.

"You would get into a life threatening situation where you will be faced by an impeccable foe."

He now pull out his final card, the fifth card show a man with a sword that was struck into his back. Death.

"You managed to defeat it but you have become far more vulnerable…and you won't last long enough to reach your destiny but you would have given up your life for a certain accomplishment, to defeat the beast that has not faults. This card tells me that you would find your peace again someday after you overcome the greatest foe of your life who outmatches you in every way but one, the peace of mind."

"Well, that is something. Thanks for the help."

"No problem. And like I said before, don't over think about these things. They are just there to help you understand yourself, and besides they are quite inaccurate when you factor in all the outcomes that awaits you."

"Alright enough with all the mumbo jumbo stuff. If there's anything more of a bad luck than getting into a rough situation where decisions are made. Then waking up without enough sleep and getting into combat is much the same. What gives? That's all just a prediction. Anything can change."

Ivan tells everyone to go to sleep as they prepare to wake up for the morning.

"God I just hate this whole thing about fate. Everyone should just have faith in themselves."

Soon, everyone is getting inside their tents to sleep for the night.

"Night ya all!"

"Don't let those ticks suck your blood!"

"Ticks? Is there even ticks in this place?"

"Sure, once you start pulling over the grass."

"Brrrrrr! This tent is blowing air into my face! How come you didn't patch it up?!"

"Shut up. No one cares. Just try to imagine you are on some Caribbean island."

"Full of cannibals? Yeah, like hell!"

"Just go to sleep."

Josef tells everyone to go to sleep as he too becomes sound asleep after a tiring day. He hasn't had this kind of sleep in weeks given how he keep getting surprises while he was sleeping, especially that incident with Olminu 'observing' him.

'Let's hope tonight would be peaceful.'

Just a few mins after everyone seems to have dosed off to sleep, several gunshots could be heard in about four hundred yards away near the same camp they have been sleeping.

*POWWwwwwW**POWWwwwwW**POWWwwwwW*

A slight gush in the wind could be heard as the gunshot broke the silence in the night. Suddenly, the sound of a pack of animals could be heard howling.

*AWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOO**GUNNNNNNNHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNN*

Everyone was fast awake.

"Did you hear that?!"

"Crap, why does it never end. One keeps coming after another!"

"Just as I thought tonight's going to have some peace and quiet around….Ahhhh."

Freed awoke up from the noise too. As he looks around at the dishevelled and raunchy bunch of Drifters. He notes to himself about how familiar that sound was.

"Gunshot, isn't? Then, that means whoever's using it isn't from this world! He whoever must be is from a time very close to yours'?"

"What are you mumbling about Freed?"

"I'm sorry guys, but there's a person who might need our help. I did say that this is an ideal shortcut route but there's a reason why no one goes through here. There has been a bunch of werewolves on the prowl recently in this part of the forest, I can't say for sure how long they been roaming around this part of the forest. Maybe, they hoped that many travellers would come through this path so they could kill for their meal."

"That sure didn't sound safe, Freed. Why didn't you even tell us before? If I had known then I would've set us up a set of traps so we could better protect ourselves."

"Yeah, were you trying to get us killed?"

"No no, I just thought that the lake monsters would ward them off. But it doesn't seem to be."

"Well, whatever it is if we don't deal with whatever these creatures are, then we'll be next. Just hope that whoever that guy firing the gun is not an End."

"Come on men, grab your gears. We're going on a hunt."

Ivan orders everyone to pack up their essential items and move to source of the gunshots.

Josef was the last person to sleep so he has heard the shots clearly.

"I think the gunshots came northeast of here. About 400 yards away."

"That must be near the lake!"

"Well let's not waste time! Just stick to the route and we'll get there!"

The men quickly moved through the path as soon as they got all their stuff. In a few seconds, the camp is empty.

 **Somewhere near the edge of the forest, close to the lake -∞-**

In the forest near the lake, there are no signs of life and the whole place is full of rotten decomposing animals. There from the nearby forest, came a pack of huge beasts resembling wolves. They scour the area looking for the pickings and they immediately found the tracks of humans, a set of foot prints moving awkwardly tiptoeing side to side as it was trying move backwards and beside it is a pair of drag marks made from someone being pulled along the ground. A wolf from the pack, or rather than a wolf, it is a large man with feature that of a wolf and wear a thick hide Armor coupled with a large single edged sword in his hand, sort of looks like a kukri knife. The huge creature signals his underlings to follow the track. The huge man beast smiles with his teeth wide open.

About a hundred meters away, another campfire was setup although it didn't have any tents around it. An unconscious man could be seen laying by the fire and beside him was another man who seems to be tuning in on his portable radio.

"Cobra 1 to base! This is an emergency. I have lost my men in a helo crash and have a wounded man needing immediate medical attention, requesting immediate evac do you read me? Over."

"I repeat, the chopper is down, I have no men and one wounded civilian. Requesting immediate evacuation! Do you read? Over."

*BZZZZZZTTTT**KRRRRRRRRTTTT*

He's looks tired and he's trying his best to get a signal, but to no avail. He throws his radio down in a fit of frustration.

"Damn it! Stupid radio! Damn worthless out here."

He then looks the unconscious man and tell him.

"Don't worry. I'll get you out of here alive."

He then reaches for his rifle to adjust the thermal sights.

This particular rifle appears to be an experimental variant of a Colt commando AR, XM177[1] with a suppressor attached to the barrel and a mounted thermal sight, which resembles an early predecessor of the AN/PVS Nightvision Goggles, the AN/PVS-1 Night Vision Sight[1] "The Starlight Scope". The night vision scope requires moonlight, or at least half a moon to work and luckily for him there's enough moonlight to use the thermal vision. He unscrews the lens cover on the end of the scope and screws on a filter cap to adapt with an aiming reticle.

He turns on the batteries while it makes a high pitched buzzing noise and aims the sight to make sure everything is clearly visible. He gets a clear picture on the scope.

*BZZZZTTTT!**POM*

"This better work."

He looks around while staying close to the fireplace to guard as a sentry for the wounded man. He looks back again at the man.

"You are the guy from Iwo Jima, the medal of honor recipient. How the hell is everyone coming to this place? This doesn't even look like the hell or heaven."

"Sorry I couldn't bring your gun back. It's abit too damn heavy. Maybe we'll retrieve it tomorrow once all the noises gone. Someone or something might be hunting us."

*GUOOOOOOOOGUH**AWWOOOOO*

Suddenly the noise came from the woods in front of where's the man is standing. The noises grew louder and louder until it become loud enough for the wounded marine to hear. The man woke up.

"Uhhh, where am I? Who are you? Where's my gun?"

"Sorry I'll explain to you later. Right now we are in abit of a trouble."

The marine sprung up to his feet and by reflex he un-holsters his M1911 pistol[1].

"Who are you?! Tell me right now!"

"Look it's not the time to be doing this. I am on your side. You should stay back, something coming our way."

"No, you don't tell me what to do! You aren't my commanding officer! I'll ask again! Tell me where we are! Now!"

The marine cocks his pistol, ready to fire.

"Shit! Something coming!"

The two drifters turn their attention to the large moving clusters of shadows heading their way.

The man in green Kevlar jacket peers through his scope and sees a whole pack of big wolves and a single tall man at least 8 Feet high, 25 Inches taller than an average man.

The first wave of the beasts came running through the trees. Snarling at them.

*GRRRRRRRRGH*

*Pew**Pew*

Two of the beasts were dead in a heartbeat as the man killed them before they got close to the open. The third, one came out of the woods running fast at him.

*POW*

The Marine shoots straight into through nose of the third wolf before it could pounce on the other man.

*WHIMPERS**GRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH*

The rest of the beasts just keeps coming out as the two men kept firing at one after another, each of them coming closer to mauling them over.

*Pew**Pew**POW**POW**POW*

"Arrrgh! Come on bastards! DIE DIE!"

The marine taunts.

The man kept shouting while shooting at the beasts until one of them actually crept up from behind and jumped onto the Marine.

"Get off me! Filthy mutt! ARRRRGHH!"

The beast kept snapping it's jaws at his neck as the Marine held it back with his hands struggling. He gain the upper torso up after mustering enough energy to throws the beast off him while keeping one knee on top of it's neck.

*GRNGHRRHRHRHRHGH**WHIMPERS*

The Marine unsheathed his KBar[1] and stabbed right into its heart, killing it. He then got back up to face the remaining wolves, quickly aiming his pistol.

*KPOW**KPOW**POW**CLICK**WHIMPERS**GUUUUUUGH*

He kills 2 more beasts before his magazine went empty.

"Reloading!"

*Pew*

The other man too stopped firing.

"I think that's the last of them…wait the Big guy's coming!"

"What Big Guy?"

A Tall Humanoid figure could be seen slowly emerging from the woods. He has a large knife with him. The creature is wearing a thick hide armour over its head and beneath the hood a face of neither man nor dog could be seen.

"YOU KILLED MY CHILDREN! HOW DARE YOU! YOU'LL PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD!"

"You first! Ugly!"

The Marine challenges the Man Beast.

*GWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWH*

Without warning the beast rushes at them trying to knock them down with brute force. The other man dodges but the Marine waited until it got close. He then successfully dodges to the side at the right moment.

Spontaneously at the same time, Marine takes his KBar in one hand and tries to slash it at the beast.

The Knife did hit the back side beast's abdomen but it fails to cut through the hide.

"Damn! This hide is too thick!"

"I can try shooting it in the head."

"No he's too fast!"

Suddenly, the beast raises his knife and slashes right down onto the Marine. The marine tried to dodge but it came right down over his head.

*KLANG*

A bullet deflect the trajectory of the blade and instead the knife missed the marine and went straight for the beast's thigh.

*UGHHHHOOHHH*

The left thigh bleeds as the marine rotates and mount up onto the beast. He positions his right arm in a downward move and aims his KBar knife onto the beast's spot between rear part of the skull and neck.

As he was about to plunge his knife into the beast, it uses its sheer force from its back muscles to throw the marine off onto the ground.

*GWOOOOOOH**KUUUH**THUD*

It manages to pull the knife out of its leg and now walks up to the marine with its knife in hand.

The other man tries to stop it but the beast delivers a powerful slash over his chest that sends him tumbling backwards. He stumbles back as he was powerless to stand up.

"Am I going to die?"

As his consciousness being to fade away, he heard gunshots coming right towards him and the best sounding like it is being startled.

 **The forest northeast, close to the lake -∞-**

By the other side of the lake, 5 men could be seen rushing to the scene of carnage. They saw a number of dead animals with limbs blown apart before the soon notices a small number of wolves like creatures only bigger sitting right beside the other side of the woods.

"Phew! I've never ran this far in my life. Do you guys see anyone?"

"Quiet, Freed. I'm seeing something moving! I need to get a better look."

Josef take out his binoculars to examine the number of those beasts along the other side while being hidden by a lining of bushes under the trees.

"You see them? How many?"

"About 10-15 of them. They look like wolves but only bigger. Think they are guarding something? They seem to be patrolling near the edge of the lake."

*POW**POW**POW**POW**

More gunshots were heard, only much closer this time.

"They are there, over the other side of the woods. Coming a few 30 meters away in the woods."

"This doesn't sound good. We need to hurry!"

"But there's no way crossing to that side unless we take them out!"

Freed then had an idea to put one of his spells to a good use.

"I think I can help with that."

"How? Throw your magic barriers at them?"

"No not that. I have one spell that could drive them away."

"Would it work?"

"I'm not sure how it would affect animals but I can give it a try."

"Well, we've got no choice. Hurry!"

"Getting right to it!"

On the other side of the woods a pack of wolves are patrolling the area with their deep yellow eyes wide open, and ears perked to the slightest of sound. Without them knowing, a piece of paper lands near the edge of the lake. It soon emits a series of low-frequency and high frequency sounds creating a unique spectrum of white noise. The animals were prone to the weird noise that counteracts with their high frequency hearing, distorting their minds.

*AWOWWOOOO**GRRRRRGH**YELPS**RRRRRGHH*

The beasts were soon driven into a complete frenzy running in all directions, into the lake's water and others ramming into trees with all their might.

Within minutes all the beasts are dead. Some having drowned to death while others died from broken skulls and necks.

"Bravo, my boy! You got them all in one strike."

"Great work man! Now we just need to run to the source of the gunfires."

"Thank you, my pleasure."

"Alright let go! Keep up the pace!"

Ivan shouts as all five of them got up on their feet and started running again towards the other side of the woods.

Zheng notices a machinegun laying on the ground as they reached the edge of the forest facing the lake. It looks American made.

"Guys look over there! A Machinegun!"

Josef stops and looks over to his side to see a Browning M1919 mg lying on the ground close the hedges.

"Alright, that might come in handy! Zheng take it with us!"

"Okay!"

Zheng picks up the gun and surprisingly it's rather light compare to most MGs he had carried before, especially the Maxim. He takes a hold of the gun and totes it back and fore as he moves through the forest to join with the others.

When Josef and his group got closer, there was another noise similar to what accompanied the beasts' howl when they first heard it.

*GUWOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH*

"That howl. There must be more of them hiding in the woods. Stay sharp!"

Josef tell the others to be careful and they got closer and closer to the howl.

Then they spot a small yellow bright glow. That must be a campfire and the guys there msut be in trouble.

"Look, campfire. This must be where the source came from."

"Get ready."

Once they got close to the open, they lay down near the bushes to take a look at the camp. They see a large humanoid creature armed with a large knife walking slowly towards the man who's been knocked over and on the left side, there another man dressed in military uniform just like them wearing a camo and tactical vest holding a rather unusual rifle in his hands. He laying beside a tree with a large gash on his chest.

"Uhhhhhhh…"

"He's injured! Freed help him! We'll take care of that big guy!"

"Got it!"

"Everyone shoot that beast!"

Ivan yells out orders as he un-holsters his pssh-41 and sets off the safety, ready to aim and fire.

*BANG**BANG**BRRRRRT**BRRRRRRRRRT**BANG**BANG**BRRRRRRRRT*

The bullets landed straight for the beast and shot its head and torso a volley of bullets.

*GHHHHUUUUHH*

The beast spurts out blood as the bullets manage to pierce through him into his head and chest creating large cavities. The best angrily turns around to face its attackers. It roars out in agony as another round hits its face square in the T-box.

*BANG**GWOOOOOH*

The Beast still hasn't given up yet as it stumbles forward with all his might to swing his knife forward, preparing for a kill strike.

The men were caught off guard when the beast runs towards them with a lightning speed.

"ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH"

*SPLASH**SKEWER*

Simo runs forward with a bayonet attached to his rifle and stabs the beast right into its neck piercing it before proceeding to thrust the bayonet up to the throat and up towards the brain.

*BRBRBRBR**SPLOOSH*

The blood came out of everywhere from mouth, the ears, the nose and even the eyes. The beast drop to the ground motionless as all the blood starts pouring out from it's cavities.

"Ach-hhhaa? Uhhhh!"

Simo Häyhä felt a numbing pain in his abdomen and saw his gut ripped out by the knife stuck to him.

"Hahhhhahhh. BRRRR!"

Simo starts to feel colder and colder when he falls down to the ground beside the slain beast.

"Simo! Don't die man!"

"No! Stay with us! Freeed! Help!"

"I'm trying to fix this other guy, wait_"

"Who the fuck do you think is more urgent here? Your friend or some stranger!?"

"I'm trying to save both. I'll save him too promise."

"Fuck that! Come over here and save him!"

"This man deserves just as much as your friend!"

"You_"

The voices starts to fade out and Simo Häyhä could no longer feel nor hear anything and his vision is starting to die out.

'I guess this is my end. I await my family, I'll be back soon, Mother, Father. Just wait a little more.'

Simo sees flashes of his past life wavering through him like a flowing water. He see everyone he knows, his family, all his townsfolks, all his friends, the pastor he regularly visits to and his comrades in arms during the war. He remembers them all for a flash of a second. But then he sees, his new found comrades, the Drifters and heard their stories during the campfire. He just can't let go of that either.

'I'm so sorry, my friends. I pray for your own safety. Survive, please.'

As the light fades away, but then it slowly comes back again. Simo opens his eyes to see Freed beside wrapping up bandages around him and along with the other Drifters keeping a look out for more attacks.

The man who was laying down injured managed to somehow survive the wound that are almost impossible to recover from and so is the other guy, the marine sitting beside him. Simo tried to feel his stomach and feels the large tear in his uniform but his wound is completely sealed up with some sort of chemicals though there was still a scar covering the gash. Then he tries to get up.

"Ugh!"

A sharp pain went up from his stomach and soon it feels like the wound was starting to tear itself again.

"Don't worry it'll heal up soon. Just don't try to make sudden movements around your abdomen."

"Hey Simo, you are back! Freed managed to save your ass! You are going to be fine."

Simo just looks around and see the same treatment given to the other guy just like him. There's a scar on his chest too.

"Freed, what did do?"

"It's a medical treatment. I used a potion that I made back in the Grandmaster's laboratory. It's uses the sap excreted from a Sage tree and a special catalyst extracted from a fish bladder which has rapid build up effects on the surface. The tree sap makes the wound of yours to harden up and seals it."

"So I'm fine then?"

"Of course you are."

"Heh, alright I guess I'm the one who's on the edge today."

"Still both of you are soft! Hah!"

Zheng laughs at both of them for acting all weird.

The Marine notices the gun Zheng is holding in his hands and immediately realises that it's his.

"Hey! Give me back my gun!"

"Woah!"

The Marine quickly grabs the gun off Zheng's hand.

"How did you find us? Explain!"

Looking rather angry the marine cocks his MG ready to fire. The rest immediately point their guns at him.

"I suggest you put that down first if you want to know."

Ivan asked the Marine to put his gun down. But he grips onto the gun tighter.

"You first, you came crashing in! How could I trust you?"

"Then we wouldn't have saved your sorry ass in the first place. It's only because we are equal that I kept my gun low on you. You are the one who's assuming everyone to be suspicious. Put that down and we'll talk."

"Never."

Just a things are about to get heated, the other men who was previously wounded now raises his hand to tell them both to stop.

"Stop. It's was me who dragged him along. You were injured Tony. I had to move you to safety."

The man suddenly feels surprised that a man he's never met know his name.

"How do you know my name? You rummaged through my pockets!?"

"No. I looked at your dog tags and I know you, I read about you at least. You were a war hero from Iwo Jima. Medal of Honor recipient."

"There was no commission from a senior officer to award a Medal of Honor to me on Iwo Jima and in fact the battle is still not finished. You're lying."

"That's because it was posthumously awarded, after you died during a mission locating enemy bunkers, you were shot by an enemy sniper. You were killed on that day Tony."

"That was the mission I received this morning. How come it is referred to as yesterday? Is this a joke?"

Finding a reason to convince him, the man in green flak jacket told him to remove his top bandage.

"Look at the back of your skull. You feel anything? Try unwinding the bandage."

The marine unpins the bandage covering his wounded head and places his hand over it. He tries feeling anything unusual about his head and suddenly it stings badly near the upper left of his skull. It felt as if a needle flew at a sonic speed and nearly compressed the side of his head. He then look back the hand he used to touch with and sees some blood on his palms. That man was right, he was killed during that mission while he was leading his men to locate the hidden pillboxes, by an enemy sniper.

"Why…..am I supposed to be dead right now? How am I still alive?"

He turns towards the man who proved him wrong and asks him.

"What's your name? What year are you from? And where are we?"

The previously unknown man smiles and tell him his name.

"Cpt. Larry Thorne of the 5th Special Forces Regiment, U.S Army Special Forces (Green Berets). The current year's 1965. I'm a Finnish-American. And we are in the forest of death where it's not just mutated snakes and wolves that kills you but also anyone the size of Pauls Bunions, in fact everything is giant."

When Simo heard he was Finnish, he was tempted to ask.

"You, a Finn?" Simo asked intriguingly.

"Yeah, I used to serve in the 14th Independent Jaeger battalion during the Winter War. I went to a Waffen-SS training regiment in Vienna, Austria. When I returned to Finland I became a captain and fought the Soviets again as part of an SS Finnish Volunteer Battalion in The Continuation War that started in 1941. Damn those commie bastards."

"Hey! You are talking to one here!"

Ivan shouted.

"Okay! Pardon me !"

"And the name too. That's my real name, not a stereotype. Also, we had no choice since your country was cooperating with the fascists."

"Well, fine. I won't deny that. The Soviets once put a bounty on my head, around 3 million Finnish marks, because I killed a whole lot of their guys, that all happened during the final months of the Continuation War. Luckily I didn't get my head taken when the war ended. I was unemployed for a while so I went to Germany to do something productive in case the Soviets took over the whole of Finland. Then I couldn't go back home so I joined a German infantry unit to fight the Soviets for the rest of the war till they knocked us through the door to Berlin."

"And then we lost the war, Berlin went down to the Soviets and I surrendered to the Brits."

"No shit." Josef interrupts for a second.

"Then, they imprison me once they figured out that I was an SS officer and I tried multiple escapes until I got back to Finland and neither did my own country's government didn't want me around. So I got captured by the state police and tried several more times escaping until I got over to Sweden. Then I went by an alias on board a ship bound for Venezuela got there and met my old regiment commander. Then I took a ship to U.S.A and make a quiet life there for a while looking out for a long term permit. Then, the Americans figured out they needed experienced soldiers from the Eastern Bloc who were carrying out special operations and espionage and had experience fighting against the Soviets and I was right for the job. So they found me and enlisted me in the U.S Army with a new name and assigned me to the Special Forces a few years later. Not quite what I expected but I didn't take any chances on that one. They offered me citizenship after 5 years of service."

"I never thought the Americans would betray our alliance, sheltering a former SS people like you.

"Trust me, I'm not the only one SS who were hired by the Americans. I can tell you there's 100 more like me."

So how did you get here?"

"I am telling you now. My chopper crash landed while I was on a mission in Vietnam, fighting the communist insurgents. The mission was to locate the hidden entrances to the Viet Cong's hideout tunnels near the boarders into Laos which were being used to transport arms and munitions to the The Ho Chi Minh Trail which is used to supply to the insurgents in the South, and I was tasked with supervising the South Vietnamese Special Forces unit, Cobra 1 during the mission. While on our way heading back to base, we came under attack by Rocket Propelled Grenades and AA fire from Viet Cong lying in wait for the ambush."

"What is a Chopper?"

"A chopper is an aircraft that files using vertical rotor wings. It can hover in one place temporarily. Things you haven't heard of unless you are in the 60s."

"So anyways, that took out my chopper and we all went down. I was supposed to be dead at the time, but you know what they say, 'You may give up on life, but Life doesn't give up on you.' so you may all know, I found this weird guy in glasses and he took me to this world. I trekked a few days around the forest until I met this U.S Marine and got ourselves into a really bad situation. And, here we are. We are all going to die out in an inhospitable jungle worse than booby traps."

"Not really. We are heading to a fortress controlled by our allies, the Octobrists."

Freed reassure him that they would be safe.

Larry was confused when he heard the word "Octobrist".

"What's Octobrists? Some kind of a festival name from Bavaria?"

"No. It's a guild of magicians including myself. We are preventing the rise of the Ends, who will eventually take over the world unless the Drifters stop them. Our duty is to protect you and bring you all together to join forces against the adversaries who wish to destroy this world."

"I still don't get it. I think this is some kind of a joke. It's like one of those marvel comics, some guy in a fancy gay suit comes in, beat the bad guys up, like myself and save the day. Yeah, right!"

"I really mean it! The End would come and destroy everything! You are our only hope! Serious!"

"Okay, I get it. So if we are all going to die. Then what's the point of going on? I won't get back home either. They would've already declared me as KIA and all the shiny medals and stuff about valour and sacrifice. No point in going on."

Larry scratches his beard as he is in a dilemma of whether it's worth going on or that he should just end everything right here.

"So you would stand and watch as people get killed?!" Josef shouts at Larry.

"And is that my problem? I barely met anyone until you guys showed up."

"Do you not have any thought of your own actions? Are you someone who everyone could count on? Can you not believe in the merit for being alive to do something great?"

"I'm just a soldier, I survive through my instincts and help who I could. Nothing more than I could to save my own hair."

"You are like us! We have done things no one else could achieve in our pasts. How could you call yourself as nothing more than just a nobody!? Think about it!"

Larry, who is now looking very hesitant about his decisions as to what he's supposed to do next. For moment he thought about it again, what could he do to make a difference in this world? Why should he be doing this? Then, he thinks about his time with the Finnish resistance. He realizes he's been making all the difference using his skills and motivation to strengthen those who depend on him.

He understands about why he does it. It's because he just had to. That was his motivation. His will.

"Fine, I'm doing this, but don't bring too much expectation on me though but I'll do what I can."

"We didn't expect much of ourselves either until we made the changes ourselves."

A moment of awkward silence is given, before one of the drifters spoke up. It was the marine, Tony Stein.

"It is our duty to protect the lives of our countrymen and their constitutional rights. I have not thrown away those values that are my purpose to serve in the marine corp. I have pledged to protect the people of the United States of America and her interests even now as I speak from beyond my grave. I still will and continue fighting for the greater good of the people against tyranny and oppression. No matter where it may be, I'll continue to serve my duties as a soldier and as a Marine. Larry you told me the war was over right?"

"Yeah, the Allies won. You were posthumously awarded the medal in 1946 by President Truman and buried at your hometown with full military honors."

"I'm glad to know about it. Thank you."

"My fight may have been crucial during the battle of Iwo Jima and to winning the war. The Pacific campaign has changed my life and the lives of others who fought alongside me as brothers in arms. I will never forget them or the brothers who died fighting to liberate those helpless from evil. I fought to end evil once and now I will support you and fight again until whatever those "Ends" people are removed from this world. I'll take them on by myself if necessary."

Ivan flinches a little when he heard that word "by myself".

"Woah! Wait, how is it only you? Look I know we are all from different factions in the past but we need to work together to survive or else they'll pick us off one by one and crush us like tooth picks!"

Ivan rebuttals on Tony's speech didn't make him withdraw.

"Like I said, I do my thing and you do yours. But when I see them don't expect me to follow your orders. You're not a Marine."

"You'll be killed. The Ends have special abilities that are inhuman. You are just an ordinary human except with special qualities and skill sets."

Freed tell the man about the great odds of fighting against the Ends, unless one works with others.

"."

"We need to work as a team. There's no other way. There were rare encounter between individual Ends and Drifters, but it often ends with the End being the winner from the fight."

Tony stares at Freed and his position doesn't change the slightest.

"I told you. It's just the way how I'll work. I'll support you and lead you through the fight but after that things would go our own ways."

"Okay, fair enough. I just want to remind you that they are a lot stronger than us and can easily defeat lone Drifters."

"But not me. I can handle this. I have done things alone in the past. I once took out enemy snipers all by myself during a mission."

Seeing how it was going to be impossible to convince him otherwise. Freed gave up and left the matter to himself.

*sigh*

Figuring the fuss is all over, Josef bring them all back to reality.

"Okay whatever, now let's all make a round on ammo and supplies!"

Josef tell everyone to check their guns and ammunition along with other essential supplies.

"Larry. What have you got?"

"I've got 8 and a half full mags including the one in my rifle magazine, each holds 20 so in total, about 190 rounds and I've got 4 mags for my Browning sidearm. 4 smokes, 5 frags and 2 M34 WP[1] and 5 signal flares. Some adrenaline shots, painkillers, morphine, water tablets and some medication against malaria and a bottle of caffeine pills."

I salvaged whatever I could from the downed helicopter, not much though, almost everything burned. I found a portable radio kit in the pilot compartment, still functioning somehow.

I took what I could carry in my field bag and buried the rest so I could retrieve them later. A spare M16 rifle and a portable grenade launcher with a bandolier of 10 rounds from the missing crewmen. I placed the cache north of where I rescued the Marine. We'll get it tomorrow."

Tony notices a strange looking scope mounted on the gun.

"What's with the scope on your rifle? Never had seen anything like it."

"This scope is the AN/PVS-1 "Starlight Scope" it's a thermal nightvision scope. It can see things moving in the dark and I can use it to see through ambushes and snipers. However this needs moonlight to work though or any available light source that it can use to detect enemies and runs on 4 AA Batteries with a life spend about 100 hrs."

"That's some crappy toy. I could pick out targets at night even without some night vision scope."

"Well, it does help. As long as you have spare batteries and an external light source. And besides I could always use my iron sights, no problem with that."

"Well what have you got marine? It looks like your pistol won't have enough to hold out but your machine gun has…"

"Call it Stinger, and yeah I only got 11 rounds left for my pistol to be exact. The stinger still has about roughly 1000 rounds left."

"Better save that ammo. There's no bullet manufacturing in this world."

"Sure. Not seeing any ammo drop from the sky."

Asides from those two, the other have finished their count.

"I've got 88 rounds left for rifle, 110 for the ppsh"

"80 rounds left for mosin, 98 for the ppsh"

"31 rounds left for rifle and 150 rounds on the ppsh."

"67 rounds for rifle, 160 rounds on the kp-31"

Larry cuts in after remembering something.

"I still haven't known how to call you guys. Let me start again, I'm Cpt. Larry Thorne. U.S Army Special Ops. Guerrilla warfare and Reconnaissance specialist."

"Cpl. Josef Allerberger. Sniper from 144th Regiment of the 3rd Gebirgsjäger Division. Wehrmacht"

"Maj. Ivan Sidorenko. Red Army Sniper. 1st Baltic Front."

"Pvt. Zheng Tao Feng. People's Volunteer Army 8th Company,214th Regiment, 24th Corps. Marksman."

"Cpl. Tony Stein. UMSC 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Division."

"Uhh….Freed from the Magician Guild Octobrists. They call me "Smoky", I know various defensive spells. I'm also your observer, making reports to my Grandmaster."

"What is that nickname?! "Smoky"?! It sounds like you've sticking your head in the clouds for abit too long kid!"

"My friends gave that to me. My spells are often achieved by setting a cloud of smoke particles."

"Sure can't wait to see you puff a genie's smoke and grant us a wish to get outta here magic carpet ride!"

"Alright well it seems that we all know each other now! Now we still need to secure the perimeter. Two of us stays up as sentry the rest can take turns sleeping."

"Crap."

In the end 4 of them ends up sleeping and three others were up taking guard shifts. The three being, Josef, Ivan and Tony.

"Hey want some cigarette?"

Josef holds out two sticks to Ivan and the marine.

"Sure."

The marine takes it.

"No thanks." says Ivan.

"I got lighter."

Ivan takes out his lighter and helps the other 2 light their smokes.

Josef takes a deep puff and lets out the smoke. The marine does the same.

"Anyone wants to go take a crap? I'll be on the look out."

Tony offers.

"No Thanks." x2

"I figured much if anyone would at this point."

The night continues on like usual, without any disturbances. Everyone needs to get up early tomorrow if they want to reach the fortress. Without exception, the night was long but at least they found some more survivors. Josef thinks through what would happen tomorrow and what they would find at the fortress. Time would tell when they reach it. He looks up to the night sky and sees thousands of stars flickering with an occasional cloud drifting by, then he sees the moon, it's looks as if it would only take 2-4 more days before it becomes full.

'Would that day of the full moon be the day when the Ends arrive?"

He worries that what they had just faced is only the beginning. Ends maybe far more powerful than the Drifters can manage.

 **To be Continued**

 **References**

 **## Military Jargons And Weapons ##**

XM177 "Commando" Assault Rifle – An initial prototype of the well-known CAR 15 Commando which is a variant of the original M16 by replacing the barrel with a 15" barrel, adding forward assist, notched bolt carrier and replacement for the tri-prong flash hider with a birdcage style. The first prototype was deployed for field tests in Vietnam, 1962 as Model 605. The CAR-15(XM177) became successful and was issued for many NATO and allied militaries which saw service from 1967 to the present day as the M4. It is well known for its accuracy, lightweight, reliability and enhanced CQC after much improvements has been made over the years.

AN/PVS-1 Night Vision Sight "Starlight Scope" – A early Night Vision Device that saw significant use during the Vietnam war, particularly with the U.S soldiers at firebases and forward camp garrisons. However for it to work, it needs ambient light from stellar objects like stars and moons to function properly. It uses standard 4 AA Batteries that could last for 100 hours.

Colt M1911 Pistol – A pistol designed by John Browning, which had been a favourite among military and civilian shooters alike. The pistol had been the standard issue of all major branches in the U.S Military from the Army to the Marines for over a century, though it was largely replaced by Beretta M92s. The M1911 remained popular because unlike the 9mm round that the Beretta M92 fires, the M1911 uses the .45 ACP cartridges which are capable of stopping an Adult man from moving forward by yawing the bullet into the flesh. People who reported being shot by an M1911 said that it was like being hit by a brick travelling at 100 mph. In addition, it could fit a suppressor over its muzzle and fire at subsonic speeds which is ideal for special ops. missions without the need for a special type of ammunition.

KBar – A large knife which has been issued to the U.S Marines since 1942. Its design was inspired by the iconic Jim Bowie' knife.

M34 WP – A special purpose white phosphorous incendiary grenade, used with great effect in the jungles of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It covers an area with white smoke that could burn its victims down to the bones. It was feared by many troops who came across the effects of the WP smoke that it was condemned a war crime to use it as an incendiary weapon by the Geneva Convention in 1983. Even so, it didn't restrict it use out in the combat zone as long as its area of effect isn't within reach of civilian populations. It was used as recent as the Yemen Civil War by the Saudis.


	6. Announcement of new chapters

_**Announcement for the upcoming chapters of the Drifters fanfic.**_

* * *

 **Author's note**

Hello everyone, I just want to say thank you to all those who chose to follow my story and I wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year for a prosperous new year!

So as you might know, I've recently been quite busy with my college studies and it's already the final year, wow time does flow really fast especially when I first wrote this story. Because of my circumstances, I humbly apologise for not being able to make any new updates (besides this announcement) for quite some time and because of that I'll like to make it up with a short announcement of what you might expect from the story in the future including, the background of the story's timeline and the new drifters you may expect. Well then, let's start by explaining the true motive of the story itself.

 **The Timeline of Story**

The timeline of the fanfic itself is aligned with the original story, but it started earlier where the main character of this story, Josef Allerberger the WW2 german soldier arrived in the magic world at least 4 weeks earlier than the MC of the original story, Toyohisa Shimazu. The time starts back when there was less conflict going on between the Drifters and regional powers, albeit the Octobrists intervening whenever a Drifters arrives. There was grace period during which we see the Octobrists preparing for the upcoming war with the Ends' arrival and the scuffles between the warmongering countries and some of the Drifters trying to take over the main territories of Orte due to the weakening of the empire and the fear of the Drifters being more powerful and capable of starting revolutions and overthrowing the existing monarchies, noble families and governments that control their respective territories. This can also explain why in addition to Orte's fear of an uprising, they were afraid of the drifters and were likely looking for Josef's group who killed an entire platoon of soldiers in mysterious ways, from their perspective.

During this time, the Octobrists have multiple affiliate governments that supports them and helps them to acquire a few lands to build their strongholds and the particular fort mentioned by the Octobrist magician Freed and Olminu in this story is a separate location from the fortress in the original story from which the Grandmaster, Abe resides. This new fortress was another one of Octobrists stronghold built in the southern territory of a nation bordering Orte by the assistance of a drifter architect who arrived 10 years before the start of the story currently lives in the city built inside the fort itself. The storylines may converge after the Ends arrive and Josef's group will encounter Toyohisa's group after the Grandmaster call for a regrouping. Then everything happens at around the same time as the original plot but some new scenarios will be added at reasonable places from the perspective of the fanfic's mc.

 **The Fortress city**

It is called the **Augsberg** fortress city. The city's quarters consists of a district for housing and residence, a business district for trade of goods and services, an agricultural zone for farmland near the outskirts of the city and an industrial zone and an oil refinery built under the guidance of the specific drifter. The city is granted a safe haven for drifters and refugees alike who were persecuted by Orte, thanks to negotiations by the Octobrists with the nation and under the pleas of the architect himself who lived as a diplomat during the 1930s of our timeline and opposed Hitler, supporting resistance groups in Western Europe during WW2. The fort city is considered a major economic zone of the nation close to Orte, although it is given the status of a city state residing within the host country. The city produces farm products compatible with domestic consumption and export due to the high standards of quality through farming methods revolutionary of their time and remarkable due to the output yield per hectare being greater than what is traditionally expected of the land given within a city. Then, there are consumables produced from factories which follows modern standards of manufacturing and machining processes ahead of its time and the products are manufactured using advanced chemistry and machining processes that are so revolutionary in fact, the Octobrists have located a research facility in the city zone with the sole purpose of researching and developing advanced chemistry and engineering and finding ways to innovate them to the rest of the world.

So far, the influence of the city is quite regional rather than being on the continental or world stage and many outsiders consider the city to be a place for heretics and outcasts and does not believe it should exist, especially when it led by drifters and the Octobrists who they have little respect for. This is the reason why the city is always under constant threat of invasion and the tense atmosphere surrounding the city. The architect knew this in mind, so he built a series of medieval and 20th century style defences with ironclad gates to the entrance and late 19th century rifled cannons and artillery using modern gun propellants packed in brass shell casings with explosive TNT and sighting systems. Additionally, the city has multiple defence points available for garrisoning soldiers with each equipped with arrow slits and a mount for a small handheld rocket launcher, fully enclosed with a stone roof. There are watchtowers equipped with spotlights running on electricity and magic stones and each one come equipped with a radio telephone line used to communicate with the headquarters and has the ability to link with a magic crystal device to the Octobrists' HQ. In case of a breach, the city is designed to allow ease of evacuation through an underground pass linked to major streets and has an emergency contingency plan to keep the occupiers out with a store of traps and primitive land mines hidden in secret warehouses along with other blockading tools. Though this may not be used anytime soon, they are there to ensure that the city could be kept secured.

 **The new Drifters**

Drifters originate from all different eras. Unfortunately though, this story mainly comprises of Drifters from either the 19th or the 20th century due to lack of knowledge/interest of the author(me) of historical figures from premodern history. In other words, almost all new drifters in this story relies heavily on guns and tactics of using them and technology, rather than the impressive melee skills and brute strength used by the drifters in the original series. Eg. Toyohisa's sword arts and samurai tactics.

Therefore unlike what most readers think, they can become quickly vulnerable, changing from having the upperhand of long range to fighting disadvantaged at close quarters. Remember, most of these drifters do not know or have no experience of fighting with at close quarters, save a few exceptional ones. Eg. The US Marine and WW1 Trench Raider.

I will not give away the names of the drifters in the upcoming chapters but I will leave hints to who they are. Then again, the list may change again time to time so keep an open mind.

 **The Swedish diplomat who helped rescue 70,000 Hungarian Jews from Budapest**

This man travelled to America and contacted the OSS then to work as their agent and diplomat for negotiating with the Nazis.

 **The soviet ace pilot who was died in a last ditch effort to sink a german destroyer, well known for piloting the IL-2 Sturmovik.**

This USSER pilot fought during the Great Patriotic war and held a tally for destroying and sinking 53 ships(13 of which he did alone), destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft. He was awarded the medal Hero of the Soviet Union twice, Order of Lenin twice and Order of the Red Banner three times.

 **A famous British officer who led a rebellion against the Ottomans, well known for his brave horse cavalry tactics and famed auto biography.**

You might just know him. The stories of his adventures were famous to this day.

 **An unnamed French soldier who fought during the Battle of Passchendale 1917**

The French soldier does not originate from historical background. He is just like the U.S Army soldier from the Viet. War in the beginning of the Series 1st episode. He was a trench raider who lost his life to an unsuspecting stab wound from a German soldier during a night trench raid. Let's call him Pvt. Henri Roussel.

 **The Last Bushranger, gave his life for the sake of the poor. Famous for the armour he wore.**

This man was considered an outlaw by the Victorian government during the British colonial era. He and a band of outlaws stole from banks owned by rich men and gave them to the poor. He is to this day considered a political revolutionary and considered one of Australia's most famous historical figures.

 **Afterword**

I guess this is announcement for the rest of this month. I hope that the future chapters will live up to my claims but I'm sure some of it will change along the way. So I'll use this as a solid reminder of self for what everyone expects right now and what I expect. I see what I can do about the next chapter, so stay with me for a while okay? I hope to write again soon.

Spearmann66


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